• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.115-127
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• 2012

This study was conducted on the measurement of soil hardness through a hardness testing machine in slopes of natural environments and artificial environments which is generally known as slope revegetation. The soil hardness as one of physicochemical soil properties is significantly associated with plant growth. Although another studies related to the slope revegetation was focused on herbaceous plants, studies related to soil properties for arbor appearance is lack. It was focused on the correlation analysis between the soil hardness and the plant appearance. the results were as follows : The higher the soil hardness is, the less the appearance of plants is as a result of survey. Species appearing in the high levels of the soil hardness represented mugwort and grass. The levels of the soil hardness in the slope of natural environments was good environmental conditions with various plants in the range of 6 to 12mm. The levels of the soil hardness in the slope revegetation was in the 6.88-30mm range. The soil hardness below 21mm showed a variety of plants with arbors and herbaceous plants, whereas it above 21mm represented a monotonous style of plant structure including Artemisia princeps, Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis L and Setaria viridis. The result of the correlation analysis between the soil hardness and the plant appearance was negatively correlated with justifiable significance levels. The result of a logistic regression analysis for tree appearance was statistically proved when the numerical value of the soil hardness is lower.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.81-90
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• 2008

Recently, geofiber(polyester) reinforced soil was added on soil-seed mixture spray to control erosion and to improve vegetation growth on rocky slope sites. This research was conducted to compare vegetation effects and soil hardness on three types of soil-seed mixture spray on stone gabion river bank [A type : soil-seed mixture spray underlying 30cm thick sand with geofiber(geofiber reinforced soil system), B type : soil-seed mixture spray underlying 30cm thick sand without geofiber, C type : soil-seed mixture spray]. Evaluation were made concerning vegetation coverage, soil hardness and moisture content. The results of this study showed that A type system was effective for the growth of vegetation and soil hardness when compareed to B type and C type. A type and B type showed higher covering rate than C type on stone gabion river bank, and especially A type showed the highest covering rate. Soil hardness and water content were high on A type vegetation system compared to B type and C type. We noted that high soil hardness and high moisture content with geofiber(geofiber reinforced soil system) were effective both to control erosion from water current impact and to be high coverage and species of vegetation on stone gabion river bank.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.537-546
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• 2002

In this study an automatic soil hardness measuring system mountable on agricultural tractors was developed to improve the accuracy of manual soil hardness testers by a constant penetrating rate, right direction of the cone-penetrometer and the isolation of vibration from the operator. This was necessary to supply similar experimental condition for performance test of new model and comparative experiment. The results of the study are summaried as follows; 1. The system consisted of a sensing part of soil hardness, a driving part of the measuring system and an attaching part between the tractor and the measuring system. 2. The allowable limit value of the system developed was set to 392N to protect from breaking the serve motor and the coupling used in this system. 3. The driving shaft penetrated into soil by 0.3m to measure soil hardness. The soil hardness was measured at the depth of 0.3m from the soil surface but the penetrating work was stopped and the driving shaft was pulled out to protect the system when the value of the soil hardness was too big on foreign substances like stones or straws. 4. Two values measured by automatic measuring system developed in this research and manual penetrometer were compared by statistics hypothesis testing method. When two people measured the soil hardness at the depth of 0.1 and 0.15m by manual cone penetrometer, there was no relationship between two values by two people but the values at the same depths by automatic measuring system developed showed similarity. The automatic system, therefore, developed in this research was proper for measuring soil hardness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.66-76
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• 1982

Soil harness represents such physical properties as porosity, amount of water, bulk density and soil texture. It is very important to know the mechanical properties of soil as well as the chemical in order to research the fundamental phenomena in the growth and the distribution of tree roots. The writer intended to grip soil hardness by soil layer and also to grasp the root distribution and the correlation between soil hardness and the root distribution of Pinus riguda Mill. planted on the denuded hillside with sooding works by soil layer on soil profile. The site investigated is situated at Peongchang-ri 13, Kocksung county, Chon-nam Province. The area is consisted of 3.63 ha having on elevation of 167.5-207.5 m. Soil texture is sandy loam and parant rock in granite. Average slope of the area is $17^{\circ}-30^{\circ}$. Soil moisture condition is dry. Main exposure of the area is NW or SW. The total number of plots investigated was 24 plots. It divided into two groups by direction each 12 plots in NW and SW and divided into three groups by the position of mountain plots in foot of mountain, in hillside, and in summit of mountain, respectively. Each sampling tree was selected as specimen by purposive sampling and soil profile was made at the downward distance of 50cm form the sampling tree at each plot. Soil hardness, soil layer surveying, root distribution of the tree and vegetation were measured and investigated at the each plot. The soil hardness measured by the Yamanaka Soil Hardness Tester in mm unit. the results are as follows: 1) Soil hardness increases gradually in conformity with the increment of soil depth. The average soil indicator hardness by soil layer are as follows: 14.6mm in I - soil layer (0-10cm in depth from soil surface), 16.2mm in II - soil layer (10-20cm), 17.2 in III - soil layer (20-30cm), 18.3mm in IV - soil layer(30-40cm), 19.8mm in V - soil layer (4.50mm). 2) The tree roots (less than 20mm in diameter) distribute more in the surface layer than in the subsoil layer and decrease gradually according to the increment of soil depth. The ratio of the root distribution can be illustrated by comparing with each of five soil layers from surface to subsoil layer as follows: I - soil layer; 31%, II - soil layer; 26%, III - soil layer; 18%, IV - soil layer; 12%, V - soil layer; 13%, 3) Soil hardness and tree root distribution (less than 20mm in diameter) of Pinus rigida Mill. correlate negatively each other; the more soil hardness increases, the most root distribution decreases. The correlation coefficients between soil hardness and distribution of tree roots by soil layer are as follows: I - soil layer; -0.3675 (at the 10% significance level), II - soil layer; -0.5299 (at the 1% significance level), III - soil layer; -0.5573 (at the 2% significance level), IV - soil layer; -0.6922 (at the 5% significance level), V - soil layer; -0.7325 (at the 2% significance level). 4) the most suitable range of soil hardness for the growth of Pinus rigida Mill is the range of 12-14.9mm in soil indicator hardness. In this range of soil indicator hardness, the root distribution of this tree amounts to 41.8% in spite of 33% in soil harness and under the 20.9mm of soil indicator hardness, the distribution amounts to 93.2% in spite of 82% in soil hardness. Judging from above facts, the roots of Pinus rigida can easily grow within the soil condition of 20.9mm in soil indicator hardness. 5) The soil layers are classified by their depths from the surface soil.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 1977

This experiment was conducted in order to find out the drawing performance of a two-wheel tractor under different levels of the soil moisture and hardness, so as to obtain some basic data for improving their drawing performance. With fairly homogeneous soil, 5 levels of soil moisture contents (8, 13, 17, 20 and 23%) and 3 levels of soil hardness (0 , 2 and 4kg/$cm^2$) were selected for this experiment.The summerized results are as follows ;1. The draft force, on the hard soil (hardness ; 4kg/$cm^2$), had a distinct tendency to decrease with the increasing soil moisture. On the medium soil (hardness ; 2 kg/$cm^2$), and the soft soil (hardness ; 0kg$cm^2$), the draft force showed the highest when the moisture contents were within the range of 16-19%.But the maximum draft force, on the soft soil, was higher than that on the medium soil by 10 %. 2. The driving axle torque increased with increasing soil by 10 %. 3.The values of horizontal distance between the soil reaction point and axle shaft were within the range of 0~10cm , and it had the tendency to increase with the increasing soil moisture. Also, it s value was the largest on the hard soil and the smallest on the soft soil. 4.The tractive efficiency decreased with the increasing soil moisture. On the hard soil, the average value of tractive efficiency was higher than that on the medium soil by 19.0% and that on the soft soil was lower than that on the medium soil. 5.The traction ratio were within the range of 30 ~45%, and their changing tendency with respect to the soil moisture was similar to that in the case of the draft force. 6. The travel resistance ratio tended to increased with increasing soil moisture, and the highest value was found on the soft soil, and the lowest on the hard soil.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.455-464
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to clarify correlations between soil environments and the growth of trees in forests and thereon analyze effects of seasonal changes in such environments on such growth. To determine seasonal factors of soil affecting the Tree Vitality of Pinus thunbergii, first of all, the study designated the Tree Vitality as a dependent variable and soil hardness, moisture, pH, K, Na, Mg and Ca as independent variables. Then the study performed Pearson's coefficient analysis. To clarify what soil factors influence the seasonal growth of Pinus thunbergii multiple regression analysis is carried out, and findings are as follow; the growth of Pinus thunbergii was basically influenced by pH, followed by soil hardness in spring, K, followed by moisture in summer, and by soil hardness in winter. However, no soil factors affected the vitality at the significance level of 5% for t.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.281-287
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• 2013

Due to its high salt content and poor physical properties in reclaimed tidal lands, it is important to ameliorate soil physical properties to improve the efficiency of desalination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of soil properties at Saemangeum reclaimed tidal saline soil with various soil amendments. Field experiment was conducted at Saemangeum reclaimed tidal land in Korea and the dominant soil series was Munpo series (coarse loamy, mixed, nonacid, Mesic, Typic, Fluvaquents). Woodchips, crushed-stone, oyster shell, coal bottom ash, and rice hull were added as soil amendments and mixed into surface soil to improve soil physical properties. There was large variability in soil hardness, but oyster shell treatment was significantly lower soil hardness at surface layer. Soil hardness was not significantly different below 15 cm depth. Infiltration rate was also significantly greater at oyster shell treatment. This may be due to the leaching of Ca ions from oyster shell and improved soil properties. However, there was no statistical significant difference of the soil bulk density, moisture content, and porosity. Improved physical properties increased desalinization rate in soil and retarded the resalinization rate when evapotranspiration rate was high. Although soil salinity was significantly decreased with oyster shell amendment, soil pH was increased that should be made up as a soil amendment. Our results indicated that oyster shell application increased infiltration rate and improved soil hardness, and thus oyster shell could be used to improve soil salinity level at Saemangeum reclaimed tidal saline soil.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 1983

A soil hardness meter with strain gages was developed in order to measure the hardness of the soil. Soil hardness tests were conducted at the laboratory based on this measuring system. Also, these results were compard with that from the cone penetrometer which is widely used for this purpose. The following conclusions were drawn from the results. 1. Since the correlation coefficient of calibration curve obtained from the soil hardness meter with strain gages was 0.99876 and that of calibration curve obtained from the cone penetrometer with dial gage was 0.97150, the soil hardness meter with strain gages was more recomendable than that with dial gage for this purpose. 2. Standard deviations of soil hardness for sands and soil of paddy field when the soil hardness meter with strain gages was used were 6.794 and 8.271, respectively and that of soil hardness for sands and soil of paddy field when the cone penetrometer with dial gage was used were 7.490 and 9.169, respectively. Thus, the soil hardness meter with strain gages seemed to have lower measuring error than with dial gage.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.482-488
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• 2017

The measurement based on reliable standard operating procedures (SOPs) is important for consistent information. The objective of this study is to investigate reliable SOPs of soil physical methods, including core method for bulk density, Yamanaka hardness, and air permeameter method for air permeability. The coefficients of variation in bulk density (core method), Yamanaka hardness, and air permeability were ranged of 1~6%, 8~13%, and 10~84%, respectively. The variation in situ measurement such as bulk density, hardness, and air permeability due to spatial variability at measuring site was larger due to the number of replicates, organic matter content, and soil texture. Nevertheless, air permeability had different values as different number of replicates, and thus, it is thought that more replicates can result in higher reliability. It suggested that investigation of soil physical properties for the target sites should required to consider about soil texture, organic matter content, and number of replications before measurement. In conclusion, core sampling for bulk density measurement in upland soil recommended to perform in 3 repetitions with 2 inch core, and 3 inch core sampling for higher organic matter content.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.287-290
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• 1995

This study was conducted to elucidate the effect of physical properties of soil in nursery bed with different densities on growth of ginseng seedling. Stem length, leaf length and leaf width of ginseng seedling showed the decreasing tendency with increasing the hardness of the nursery soil. Fresh root weight per seedling and number of available seedlings were increased significantly with decrease of the soil hardness. For solid, liquid phases, bulk density and hardness of soil, negative correlations were shown in stem length, leaf length, leaf width, root weight per seeding, and number t of available seedlings. On the other hand, gas phase, air permeability and porosity of soil had positive correlations with stem length, leaf length, leaf width, root weight per seedling and number of available seedlings. Key words Yang-Jik nursery, ginseng seedling, soil physical properties.