Environmental Monitoring of Soil Compaction
Commissioned by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, a new monitoring program was launched in 2003 with the aim of monitoring the soil physical condition of Swedish arable land.
It includes the monitoring of certain soil physical parameters in the subsoil across 30 selected reference fields, which are intended to represent the most important soil types and farming practices in the major agricultural regions. The physical parameters determined are the soil's saturated hydraulic conductivity, dry bulk density, porosity, proportion of water-filled pores at 1.0 m water-clearing pressure, and soil penetration resistance.
As of 2008, the topsoil is also included in the monitoring. In addition to the parameters measured in the subsoil, aggregate stability and the risk of phosphorus losses are also determined. Each year, five of the thirty fields will be sampled. This means that each field will be investigated every six years. The program is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Results från the Environmental Monitoring of Soil Compaction
Summary of the years 2003 - 2018 (in Swedish)
Specific places and years, together with a summary can be downloaded from Miljödata MVM.
Environmental monitoring - soil compaction is part of a larger program, the Agricultural Landscapes programme, which aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the environmental quality in the agricultural landscape.
Contact
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PersonArarso Etana, researcher at the Department of Soil and Environment