Controlled Experiments on Soil Compaction Produced by Off-Road Vehicles in the Mojave Desert, California
Adams JA, Endo AS, Stolzy LH, Rowlands PG, Johnson HB. 1982. Controlled Experiments on Soil Compaction Produced by Off-Road Vehicles in the Mojave Desert, California. Journal of Applied Ecology. 19(1):167-175
(1) Soil compaction is being caused by intensive use of off-road recreational vehicles in the California deserts. Vehicle tracks produced by different numbers of motorcycle and four-wheel drive passes were made on the Mojave Desert of California on both a Typic Haplargid and a Typic Torripsamment soil in an attempt to estimate minimum amounts of soil compaction which may produce significant reductions in growth of desert annual plants. (2) A motorcycle produced much smaller increases in soil strength than did a four-wheel drive vehicle. (3) Soil strength of drying compacted soil (even slightly compacted soil) increased at a much greater rate than soil strength of drying uncompacted soil. This may be an explanation for observed reductions in annual desert plant growth even on areas with a relatively small amount of compaction.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Adams, John; Endo, Albert; Stolzy, Lewis; Rowlands, Peter; Johnson, Hyrum
- Units
- DEVA , JOTR
- Keywords
- Absence (Biodiversity), Frequency, Intensity, mass wetness, Presence (Biodiversity), soil strength, Taxa Links To Datasets, Taxa Links To References, Typic Haplargid soil, Typic Torripsamment soil