Wieloaspektowa metoda oceny stanu gleb leśnych po przeprowadzeniu procesów pozyskania drewna
Authors:   University of Agriculture in Krakow, Kulak Dariusz 
Published: November 2021

Presented reasearch aimed to develop and analyse the suitability of the CART models for prediction of the extent and probability of occurrence of damage to outer soil layers caused by timber harvesting performed under varied conditions. Having employed these models, the author identified certain methods of logging works and conditions, under which they should be performed to minimise the risk of damaging forest soils. The analyses presented in this work covered the condition of soils upon completion of logging works, which was investigated in 48 stands located in central and south-eastern Poland. In the stands selected for these studies a few felling treatments were carried out, including early thinning, late thinning and final felling. Logging works were performed with use of the most popular technologies in Poland. Trees were cut down with chainsaws and timber was extracted by means of various skidding methods: with horses, semi-suspended skidding with the use of cable yarding systems, farm tractors equipped with cable winches or tractors of a skidder type, and forwarding employing farm tractors with trailers loaded mechanically by cranes or manually. The analyses also included mechanised forest operation with the use of a harvester and a forwarder. The information about the extent of damage to soil, in a form of wheel-ruts and furrows, gathered in the course of soil condition inventory served for construction of regression tree models using the CART method (Classification and Regression Trees), based on which the area, depth and the volume of soil damage under analysis, wheel-ruts and furrows, were determined, and the total degree of all soil disturbances was assessed. The CART classification trees were used for modelling the probability of occurrence of wheel-ruts and furrows, or any other type of soil damage. Qualitative independent variables assumed by the author for developing the models included several characteristics describing the conditions under which the logging works were performed, mensuration data of the stands and the treatments conducted there. These characteristics covered in particular: the season of the year when logging works were performed, the system of timber harvesting employed, the manner of timber skidding, the means engaged in the process of timber harvesting and skidding, habitat type, crown closure, and cutting category. Moreover, the author took into consideration an impact of the quantitative independent variables on the extent and probability of occurrence of soil disturbance. These variables included the following: the measuring row number specifying a distance between the particular soil damage and communication tracks, the age of a stand, the soil moisture content, the intensity of a particular cutting treatment expressed by units of harvested timber volume per one hectare of the stand, and the mean angle of terrain inclination. The CART models developed in these studies not only allowed the author to identify the conditions, under which the soil damage of a given degree is most likely to emerge, or determine the probability of its occurrence, but also, thanks to a graphical presentation of the nature and strength of relationships between the variables employed in the model construction, they facilitated a recognition of rules and relationships between these variables and the area, depth, volume and probability of occurrence of forest soil damage of a particular type. Moreover, the CART trees served for developing the so-called decision-making rules, which are especially useful in organising logging works. These rules allow the organisers of timber harvest to plan the management-related actions and operations with the use of available technical means and under conditions enabling their execution in such manner as to minimise the harm to forest soils. Furthermore, employing the CART trees for modelling soil disturbance made it possible to evaluate particular independent variables in terms of their impact on the values of dependent variables describing the recorded disturbance to outer soil layers. Thanks to this the author was able to identify, amongst the variables used in modelling the properties of soil damage, these particular ones that had the greatest impact on values of these properties, and determine the strength of this impact. Detailed results depended on the form of soil disturbance and the particular characteristics subject to analysis, however the variables with the strongest influence on the extent and probability of occurrence of soil damage, under the conditions encountered in the investigated stands, enclosed the following: the season of the year when logging works were performed, the volume-based cutting intensity of the felling treatments conducted, technical means used for completion of logging works, the soil moisture content during timber harvest, the manner of timber skidding, dragged, semi-suspended or forwarding, and finally a distance between the soil damage and transportation ducts. The CART models proved to be very useful in designing timber harvesting technologies that could minimise the risk of forest soil damage in terms of both, the extent of factual disturbance and the probability of its occurrence. Another valuable advantage of this kind of modelling is an opportunity to evaluate an impact of particular variables on the extent and probability of occurrence of damage to outer soil layers. This allows the investigator to identify, amongst all of the variables describing timber harvesting processes, those crucial ones, from which any optimisation process should start, in order to minimise the negative impact of forest management practices on soil condition.