Soil Compaction
Soil Moisture
Embedded Files
Soil Compaction Overview
Soil Compaction Overview
Soil compaction occurs when soil is compressed, causing the particles to be packed closely together, and can slow the movement of water, nutrients, and plant roots, making it harder for plants to grow. Soil compaction is commonly caused by heavy machinery, frequent foot traffic, and weather events. In our research, we used an Agratronix Soil Compaction Tester to measure and compare soil compaction in areas of the woods around The Roland Park School with different levels of foot traffic and machinery use.
Soil Moisture Overview
Soil Moisture Overview
Soil moisture is the amount of water stored in the spaces between soil particles in the top layer, typically 2 to 3 inches deep. Vegetation, weather/precipitation, and soil types and textures all have large impacts on soil moisture. Soil moisture not only plays a critical role in the health of the forest, but also helps to predict future disastrous weather events, such as droughts. We used the GoDirect Soil Moisture Tester to measure soil in the forest surrounding the Roland Park Country School.
Graphs:
ANOVA tests were run for each graph to understand the legitimacy of the null hypothesis. After anylizing each ANOVA test, the null hypothesis; the location of the test had no effect on the result, was either rejected or accepted. Post huck-tukey tests were then run to to find the statistical difference between the data in each of the locations.
Graph and Findings at 3 Inches
Graph and Findings at 3 Inches
Graph and Findings at 6 Inches
Graph and Findings at 6 Inches
Graph and Findings at 9 Inches
Graph and Findings at 9 Inches
Graph and Findings at 12 Inches
Graph and Findings at 12 Inches
Results:
Graph one found that site one had the most compacted soil compared to the other three test sites. Graph two found that while sample sites 2, 3, and 4 had statistical differences, sample site 1 was the largest outlier and had the most compacted soil compared to other three sites. Graph three proves that there were large differences across all sights, and sites 1 and 4 were particularly different compared to sites 2 and 3. Lastly, graph four found that site 2 was the largest outlier and had the highest statistical distance from the other sites.
Soil Moisture: Graph and Findings
Soil Moisture: Graph and Findings
This graph shows the percentage of moisture in the soil for all the sites, as collected from the GoDirect Soil Moisture across four sites from two soil samples. The F-value that was gotten was 6.967 and the p-value of 0.0012, which meant that we rejected our null hypothesis. We also saw that sites 2 and 4 both had many more outliers than sites 1 and 3, meaning that sites 2 and 4 are less statistically similar. In other words, sites 4 and 2 had greater variance in soil moisture.
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