Summary
This paper presents a systematic modelling framework for predicting soil compaction caused by grazing livestock, integrating a rheology-based compaction model with empirical recovery mechanisms driven by biological activity. The framework couples bulk density and porosity predictions with a dual-porosity permeability model to estimate hydraulic conductivity changes, and was successfully calibrated and validated against field measurements from a New Zealand pastoral system. The approach provides a quantitative tool for assessing environmental impacts of grazing management on key soil properties, potentially applicable in agro-ecosystem modelling to evaluate surface runoff and greenhouse gas emissions.
UK applicability
The modelling framework is relevant to UK pastoral systems, where livestock compaction is similarly a concern in wet, intensively-grazed grasslands. However, UK soils and rainfall patterns differ from New Zealand conditions; model recalibration using UK-based data would be necessary to reliably predict compaction and recovery dynamics under British climatic and management regimes.
Key measures
Bulk density, macroporosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, soil compaction spatial variation, soil structure recovery rates
Outcomes reported
The study developed and tested a quantitative modelling framework that predicts changes in soil bulk density, porosity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity resulting from livestock treading, and accounts for soil structural recovery through biological activity. Model predictions were validated against field data from a grazing study at Tussock Creek, New Zealand.
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