Soil Response to Compaction (A Case study in north of Khuzestan, Iran)

Soil compaction is a process whereby soil bulk density increases. Compaction of agricultural soils may be caused by artificial means through use of heavy machinery currently used in agricultural and land reclamation practices and through animal grazing. Techniques that could minimize compaction include determining appropriate moisture for trafficking, use of amendments, cropping system and grazing management. The response of three different texted soils to compaction under varying soil moistures was investigated. Either field capacity or plastic limit, whichever is less, can be used as threshold moisture content in order to indicate compaction hazard. For al1 three soils the addition of fly ash significantly (P?0.05) decreased plasticity index, and thus reduced soi1 susceptibility to compaction.