Forest Soil Productivity on the Southern Long-Term Soil Productivity Sites at Age 5This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.
Forest management operations have the potential to reduce soil productivity through organic matter and nutrient removal and soil compaction. We measured pine volume, bulk density, and soil and foliar nitrogen and phosphorus at age 5 on the 13 southern Long-Term Soil Productivity study sites. The treatments were organic matter removal [bole only (BO), whole tree (WT), whole tree and forest floor (WTFF)], and soil compaction (none, moderate, severe). The WT and WTFF treatments reduced pine volume by 18 percent overall compared to the BO plots, with the greatest reductions occurring on the sites with the lowest inherent site quality. Soil compaction had little effect on pine volume, but bulk density of the com-pacted plots at age 5 was still elevated, by an average of 5 percent, over the noncompacted plots.