Geoderma最新文献

{"title":"Corrigendum to “Mechanisms of generation and accumulation of geogenic Cr(VI) in serpentinite-weathered soils” [Geoderma 466 (2026) 117675]","authors":"Rouyun Zhou, Bolang Luo, Ming Ao, Taicong Liu, Ruichun Meng, Loua-Augustin Bonaventure, Xiaoli Qian, Jean-Louis Morel, Pan Wu, Shizhong Wang, Rongliang Qiu","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117802","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147680800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coupling crop growth with ParFlow for simulating agro-hydrological processes on a regional scale","authors":"Zelin Hou ,&nbsp;Quanzhong Huang ,&nbsp;Jiawei Liu ,&nbsp;Lei Sun ,&nbsp;Yiming Fan ,&nbsp;Haozhi Li ,&nbsp;Dongyang Ren ,&nbsp;Xu Xu ,&nbsp;Yunwu Xiong ,&nbsp;Zailin Huo ,&nbsp;Guanhua Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117726","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117726","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate representation of the coupled interactions between soil water content (SWC), groundwater dynamics, and crop growth is crucial for assessing the impacts of changing environments at the basin scale. Many basin-scale hydrological models often prioritize hydrological processes while overlooking the influence of crop growth on water dynamics. In this study, the EPIC (Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator) model was coupled with ParFlow (referred to as ParFlow-AGE, ParFlow with Agricultural Environment) to simulate crop growth along with surface water, soil water, and groundwater at the regional scale. The model was calibrated and validated using three years of field data from a typical research area in the Hetao Irrigation District (HID). All the simulated values showed good agreement with the measured data. The simulated SWC demonstrated R² ranging from 0.65 to 0.71, while the simulated crop height (CH), leaf area index (LAI), and aboveground biomass showed R² values ranging from 0.90 to 0.93. Additionally, the simulated groundwater depth (GWD) exhibited relatively high accuracy, with R² ranging from 0.76 to 0.83. During soil water exchange, in the vertical direction, irrigation and rainfall events caused pronounced fluctuations in surface soil water content, while deeper SWC remained relatively stable. In the lateral direction, quantification of water exchange of experimental field A and B using normalized radial water exchange (NRWE) showed that lateral water movement increased with depth (NRWE_0-1 &lt; NRWE_1-2.6 &lt; NRWE_2.6-5). GWD, evapotranspiration, and yield exhibited high spatial variability across the study area. Shallower groundwater depth was obtained near the canal due to lateral seepage, resulting in a significantly higher actual evapotranspiration than other fields. However, the yields of maize and sunflower were 12% and 9% lower than those in other fields, respectively, because of increased stress to crops from water and aeration. Non-productive use of water, including soil evaporation from agricultural fields and evaporation from canal and built-up land, accounted for 35% of the total ET_act (135,401 m³ water across 45.57 hm²). These findings validate the feasibility of the coupled model, providing a more practical and powerful tool for large-scale agro-hydrological studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117726"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146172524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maize root growth, oxygen and N availability drive formation of N2O hotspots in soil","authors":"Pauline Sophie Rummel ,&nbsp;Martin Reinhard Rasmussen ,&nbsp;Aurélien Saghaï ,&nbsp;Theresa Merl ,&nbsp;Sara Hallin ,&nbsp;Carsten W. Mueller ,&nbsp;Klaus Koren","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117734","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117734","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plant roots can modify all major controls of denitrification in soils, particularly the availability of the main substrates (NO₃⁻ and C_org), soil moisture, soil O₂ content, and root-associated microbial communities, and thus play an important role in N₂O formation. Direct <em>in-situ</em> measurements of N₂O concentrations in the rhizosphere are lacking, yet are crucial to better understand how rhizosphere denitrification contributes to overall N₂O emissions from soil. We equipped rhizoboxes with O₂-sensitive planar optodes to simultaneously monitor root growth and rhizosphere/soil O₂ concentrations. We measured soil surface N₂O fluxes and linked them to root growth, soil moisture, and root/soil O₂ concentrations. Based on root growth and O₂ concentrations, we identified regions of interest (ROI) and sampled small soil volumes, which were analyzed for C and N content, and abundance of genes indicative of microbial denitrifiers (<em>nirK</em>, <em>nirS</em>) and N₂O reducers (<em>nosZ</em>I, <em>nosZ</em>II), and soil N₂O concentrations. Plant roots determined depth gradients of nutrients and denitrification gene abundances in the soil of the rhizoboxes with higher resource availability (NO₃^–, DOC) and lower soil moisture in the upper soil layers, which also had higher abundances of total bacteria, <em>nirK</em> and <em>nosZ</em>II. These findings indicate that the uppermost soil layers largely contributed to N₂O formation. Our study provides the first direct evidence of roots creating distinct O₂ and N gradients controlling N₂O production at the process scale leading to high <em>in-situ</em> N₂O concentrations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117734"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146209228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of prescribed fire on soil physicochemical properties in a mediterranean Pinus halepensis plantation: a case study in the Montgrí Massif.","authors":"Sebastián Alfaro-Zepeda,&nbsp;Mariano Moreno de las Heras,&nbsp;Antonio Peñalver-Alcalá,&nbsp;Eduardo García-Braga,&nbsp;Joaquim Farguell,&nbsp;Xavier Úbeda","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117730","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117730","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fire has long shaped Mediterranean ecosystems. However, changes in fire regimes, a major consequence of global environment change, have led to increasingly frequent and more intense wildfires in these regions. Sustainable forest management is, therefore, today critical for reducing the risk of ignition and minimising the damage caused by wildfires. In Spain, management tools as pruning and felling, silviculture, and prescribed fire (PF) are employed individually or in combination to address this challenge. But the use of PF is controversial due to the risks of provoking uncontrolled fire episodes, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and altering soil properties if such fires are not properly managed. This study reports the results of the annual monitoring of the physical and chemical properties of a calcareous soil after a PF. We document changes in a <em>Pinus halepensis</em> plantation of the Montgrí massif (NE Spain) to determine whether this forest management approach has any short-term (two-year period) effects. In year zero, i.e., immediately after the PF, a significant increase in the soil’s electrical conductivity and water repellency was observed in the burned plot (vs. control). In the first year, soil pH was significantly higher in the treated plot relative both to its first-year pH levels and to those of the control. By the second year, no significant differences were observed in the physicochemical properties of the soils of the treated and control plots. These results suggest that PF did not cause significant short-term changes in soil properties, supporting its role as a sustainable management tool for reducing accumulated biomass in forests while maintaining soil resilience in Mediterranean ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117730"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146777808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multispectral bare soil composites as a resource for SOC mapping rather than SOC monitoring: A case study in the Walloon region (Belgium)","authors":"Dries De Bièvre,&nbsp;Pierre Defourny,&nbsp;Bas van Wesemael","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117738","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117738","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key indicator of soil health on croplands, as well as a potential lever for carbon sequestration in agriculture. This requires tools for understanding spatial and temporal variations in SOC content. Multispectral satellites provide data on bare soil reflectance which is influenced by SOC content. In this study, an extensive database of 34,418 soil analyses on 22,850 fields is leveraged to train a Machine-Learning model for SOC content prediction. The predictive covariates are derived from a bare soil composite of Sentinel-2 images over the Walloon region (Belgium) obtained from March to June over a three-year period (2019–2021) as well as some environmental covariates. We observe that multispectral data is complementary to environmental covariates for explaining spatial variability in SOC content. Through feature elimination relevant spectral features were identified: the normalized difference of band 3 (Green) and 2 (Blue); band 5 (Red-Edge) and 11 (SWIR1); band 11 (SWIR1) and 12 (SWIR2) and the reflectance in band 4 (Red). These spectral indices were combined with three environmental covariates: elevation, the agro-ecological zone and the fine fraction (<span><math><mo>&lt;</mo></math></span> 20<span><math><mi>μ</mi></math></span>m) content. The resulting model predicts SOC content at field-level with an RMSE of 2.7 g C kg⁻¹ and an <span><math><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup></math></span> of 0.56. Given this uncertainty, we conclude that multispectral data is insufficient for SOC content monitoring at parcel-level but is a tool to consider for SOC content mapping. The SOC content map can be used for regional SOC content estimates, after modeling the autocorrelation of the model errors. This offers the possibility to compare groups with different management practices or assess the average SOC content of fields in a soil conservation program compared to a regional baseline.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117738"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147334371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping soil property classes over a large territory with multiple soilscapes by digital extrapolations of legacy detailed soil maps: A case study in Karnataka -South India","authors":"Philippe Lagacherie ,&nbsp;S. Dharumarajan","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117743","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117743","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using detailed soil maps to calibrate DSM models could be an alternative to point observations, as they would account for local soil patterns more accurately than the sparse sets of soil profiles classically used in broad-scale DSM applications. However, the detailed soil surveys are most often scarce on large territories, which generates clustered calibration sets that may not represent the whole unmapped area. It is therefore important to delineate extrapolation areas that have soil-landscape relationships sufficiently similar to those of the soil map perimeter.</div><div>We developed a DSM approach for mapping soil property classes (depth, texture and stoniness) over a large part (156,499 km²) of Karnataka state, South India. We used a sparse set of 91 soil maps of micro-watersheds (464 km² of soil mapped areas) collected from recent land inventory programmes. Soilscape distances between soil maps were first defined by measuring the differences between soil property class distributions for each couple of soil-mapped micro-watersheds. A predictive model (random forest) that can estimate these ’ground-truth’ soilscape distances was then calibrated by using as covariates the differences of distributions and variograms of soil covariates (e.g. relief, climate, remote sensing data and small-scale soil maps), as well as the geographical distance between micro-watersheds. Soilscape distances were then used to select the appropriate DSM model for predicting soil property classes at each location (i.e. the model calibrated with the map of the closest micro-watershed). Soilscape distances served also to delineate extrapolation areas around existing soil maps in which soil property classes can be predicted with the highest accuracy and lowest predicted uncertainty.</div><div>Using a leave-one-micro-watershed-out evaluation approach, We found that a single model calibrated onto the entire set of soil maps successfully predicted the texture and stoniness classes of soils over an extrapolation area covering 7% of the entire study area. Accuracies of 94% and 90% were obtained for texture, and stoniness, with respective predicted uncertainties of 6% and 7%. However, lower accuracy (57%) and higher uncertainty (31%) were obtained for predicted soil depth classes. Using multiple DSM models, each selected from soilscape distances, did not improve upon these results.</div><div>This exploratory study paves the way for a possible hybrid approach to mapping soils across large territories. This approach would combine conventional soil surveys for detailed mapping of soil properties with digital soil mapping to extrapolate detailed soil maps. Digital soil mapping sampling techniques should also be employed in the future to select the locations of further detailed soil maps for mapping the target territory in an optimal way, thereby extending the extrapolation area while reducing survey costs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117743"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146777807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Litter-type-specific succession of microeukaryotic communities and their associations with litter decomposition","authors":"Yuxin Wang,&nbsp;Geert Smant,&nbsp;Stefan J.S. van de Ruitenbeek,&nbsp;Stefan Geisen","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117745","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117745","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Litter decomposition regulates nutrient cycling and carbon turnover, with fungi arguably being the main drivers. While protists are interacting with fungi, their role, as well as the interaction between both groups of microeukaryotes in litter decomposition, remain largely unknown. In this study, we used long-read nanopore sequencing to investigate the taxonomic and functional succession of microeukaryotes throughout one-year decomposition. To obtain more generalizable insights, we used six different litter types, spanning a wide C/N gradient (6–47) and diverse plant families (Poaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, and Asteraceae). Our results revealed that microeukaryotic succession during litter decomposition was strongly shaped by litter type. Across all litter types, taxonomic richness (Chao1) followed a unimodal trajectory, peaking at mid-decomposition, whereas Shannon diversity increased consistently over time. Microeukaryotic community composition (i.e., β-diversity) changed primarily with litter type, while temporal progression reduced within-litter dissimilarity and was associated with phase-specific indicator taxa. Microeukaryotic functional composition further diverged among litter types, with saprotroph and predator abundances showing distinct litter-dependent trajectories, highlighting strong litter-type-specific successional patterns in microeukaryotic communities. Random forest analysis indicated that protist-related metrics increased in importance over time, becoming the strongest predictors of litter mass loss by explaining 47% of the variation at the end of decomposition. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating fungal and protist dynamics to understand litter decomposition and underscore the role of litter-type-specific microeukaryotic succession in shaping carbon cycling and ecosystem functioning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117745"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146778822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combined diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and digital soil mapping for soil assessment in smallholder farms","authors":"Naveen K. Purushothaman ,&nbsp;Kaushal K. Garg ,&nbsp;Nagaraju Budama ,&nbsp;Venkataradha Akuraju ,&nbsp;K.H. Anantha ,&nbsp;Ramesh Singh ,&nbsp;M.L. Jat ,&nbsp;Bhabani S. Das","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117749","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117749","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and digital soil mapping (DSM) offer opportunities to rapidly assess soil in large areas. Specifically, the combined DRS-DSM modelling pipeline may be used to create soil test recommendations for every smallholder farm in a given region although comprehensive testing of such a pipeline is rarely attempted. With multi-year and multi-site soil spectral data from the smallholder farms of the Bundelkhand region, we evaluated the DRS-DSM pipeline for estimating soil properties and making nutrient recommendation for every smallholder farm both within and outside the DRS calibration zones. Specifically, we compared both measured and DRS-estimated soil properties as inputs in DSM approaches using 1112, 607, and 407 soil samples collected during 2018 (T₂₀₁₈: calibration zone), 2021 (T₂₀₂₁: within the calibration zone), and 2022 (T₂₀₂₂: outside the calibration zone), respectively, for estimating 17 soil parameters and their soil test crop response (STCR) ratings. For T₂₀₂₂ samples, DRS models calibrated within the calibration zone accurately predicted 7 out of 17 soil properties with Lin’s concordance correlation coefficients (LCCC) exceeding 0.6. Spiking these datasets with T₂₀₂₂ data further improved predictions to 10 properties and reduced errors by 3–29%. In T₂₀₂₁ dataset, both measured property- and DRS-based DSM approaches achieved comparable accuracy. Estimated STCR rating accuracies for the DRS-DSM pipeline exceeded 70% for 9 out of 13 properties suggesting that these two emerging technologies may be combined to make nutrient recommendations across smallholder farms within a given region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117749"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147279066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does a tradeoff between temporal stability and sampling frequency contribute to the prediction accuracy of soil moisture in alternative stable states?","authors":"Xi Zhu,&nbsp;Zhibin He,&nbsp;Jun Du,&nbsp;Longfei Chen,&nbsp;Pengfei Lin,&nbsp;Quanyan Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117751","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117751","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil water content (SWC) regulates patchy vegetation patterns in arid regions, where alternative stable states (ASS) explain vegetation mosaics. Although temporal stability and sampling frequency (SF) are critical for SWC prediction, their tradeoff and its impact on prediction accuracy remain poorly understood. Using SWC data from 48 sampling occasions at 70 cm depth across grassland, shrubland, and forest ecosystems, we examined how SF influences SWC dynamics and prediction accuracy.</div><div>Results showed that SF significantly affected SWC dynamics and temporal stability, particularly under lower SFs (15–45 days, LSFs) compared to higher SFs (≤7 days, HSFs). Under HSFs, mean SWC remained stable across vegetation types, whereas under LSFs, significant effects emerged except in specific grassland layers. Temporal stability indices—including Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, mean relative difference range, and representative location values—were generally higher under HSFs. Despite this, SWC was accurately predicted across all vegetation types and soil layers under LSFs (R2 &gt; 0.75, p &lt; 0.01). Moreover, indirect prediction methods significantly outperformed direct methods. These findings reveal a vegetation-dependent tradeoff between SF and temporal stability: forests retain high predictability under LSFs, while grasslands require HSFs for accurate estimation. This hydrological distinction offers insight into the stability mechanisms underlying alternative vegetation states within ASS frameworks. Our study informs optimized SWC monitoring strategies and advances process-based understanding of ASS formation and maintenance in arid ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117751"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147334411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wheel traffic compaction intensified with orchard age while hydraulic responses were partially decoupled in the top 30 cm","authors":"Siyu Wang ,&nbsp;Wei Hu ,&nbsp;Heather Jenkins ,&nbsp;Dougal Stalker ,&nbsp;Craig Tregurtha ,&nbsp;Rogerio Cichota ,&nbsp;Henry Wai Chau ,&nbsp;Jim Moir ,&nbsp;Karin Müller ,&nbsp;Brendon Malcolm","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117725","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2026.117725","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil compaction from frequent wheel traffic is a concern in orchards. The potential impacts of soil compaction, particularly over orchard age, on soil physical properties, remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impacts of wheel traffic on soil physical properties, both mechanical and hydraulic, at various depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm) across different plantation ages in two commercial apple orchards located in Canterbury (3, 12, and 40 years) and Tasman (12, 17, and 28 years), New Zealand. Soil samples and field measurements were taken at three positions: tree rows, wheel tracks, and inter-track areas. Penetration resistance, a mechanical property, was measured in situ as an indicator of compaction, while hydraulic properties, including total porosity, macroporosity, available water capacity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and relative field capacity were measured in the laboratory using intact soil cores to assess water- and aeration-related functions. Results showed that wheel traffic significantly increased soil compaction, reducing available water capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity and impairing aeration. Notably, these declines were also observed beyond the visibly compacted wheel tracks, suggesting more widespread functional impairment across orchard soils. Older plantations generally exhibited higher penetration resistance, and significant interactions between plantation age and sampling position were observed for penetration resistance. However, older plantations did not necessarily exhibit worse hydraulic conditions (e.g., available water capacity, saturated hydraulic conductivity), and no interactions between plantation age and sampling position were detected for soil hydraulic properties. These findings suggest that while wheel traffic-induced compaction impaired soil hydraulic functions, compaction intensity and hydraulic responses became less consistent with increasing plantation age. This study highlights the importance and potential of mitigating soil compaction to improve soil physical properties and environmental sustainability through targeted management interventions. Future research should focus on understanding the broader impacts of soil compaction on soil functions (e.g., water and aeration storage and transport) and ecosystem services in orchards.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"467 ","pages":"Article 117725"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146160811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}