Effects on some clay soil qualities following the passage of rubber-tracked and wheeled tractors in central Italy

There is increased use of rubber-tracked tractors for ploughing on clay soil (Vertic Cambisol) in central, south and insular Italy instead of metal-tracked tractors, because they allow travel on public roads. Field tests were carried out on arable soil previously ploughed and harrowed to compare two types of tractors, one rubber-tracked (CAT Challenger Ch 45) and one wheeled (New Holland 8770) in order to establish the compacting effects resulting from 1 and 4 passes of the tractors in the same track. The following parameters were studied: soil penetration resistance, bulk density and its increment ratio, soil shear strength, soil macroporosity and hydraulic conductivity. Multiple passes made by the two tractors induced very similar effects on the soil in regards to soil penetration resistance. Mean values of penetration resistance (0–0.20 m depth) were 1.15 MPa for the rubber-tracked tractor and 1.11 MPa for the wheeled tractor; mean values of penetration resistance (0.21–0.40 m depth) were 1.07 MPa for the rubber-tracked tractor and 1.17 MPa for the wheeled tractor. The decrease in macroporosity, in particular that of elongated pores in the soil surface layer (0–0.10 m depth) was greater in treatments involving the rubber-tracked tractor (from 20.2 to 2.7%) than for the wheeled tractor (from 20.2 to 10.3%). Following traffic of the two tractors, hydraulic conductivity decreased and the following values were found for the five treatments: control, 18.48 mm h−1; wheeled tractor 1 and 4 passes, 11.15 and 7.45 mm h−1, respectively; rubber-tracked tractor 1 and 4 passes, 3.25 and 1.1 mm h−1, respectively. Highly significant correlations between shear strength and dry bulk density, and between hydraulic conductivity and elongated pores and total macroporosity were found. Significant linear relationships between macroporosity and penetration resistance for 1 and 4 passes of both tractors were found in the soil layers (0–0.10 m). A significant difference was found between tractors and for correlations of penetration resistance values above control values. However, in the soil layer (0–0.20 m depth), with respect to the higher degree of macroporosity and low values of penetration resistance, treatments involving wheeled tractor (1 pass) showed a lower degree of soil compaction than was observed after 1 pass of the rubber-tracked tractor.