Status and causes of soil compaction at apple orchards in the Weibei Dry Highland, Northwest China

To find out the recessive factors of soil degradation threatening the healthy development of Weibei apple orchards, we examined soil compaction status and its inducing factors. This study could provide a theoretical basis for apple orchard scientific management. We evalua-ted the changes of soil bulk density and compaction with the depth of soil layer in 0-60 cm in four apple orchards with various planting period, including <10 years (4-6 years), 10-20 years (14-16 years) and ＞20 years (24-26 years). The location and degradation degree of soil compaction in orchard were investigated. Through analyzing the number of soil aggregates and the stability, soil clay and organic matter contents, we tried to find the reasons for the internal compacting of soil in Weibei orchards. The results showed that soil bulk density and compactness in the 0-60 cm soil layer significantly increased with increasing planting years and soil depth. With the 20 cm soil layer as a boundary, soil of Weibei orchards in different planting years showed obvious variation characteristics of loose in upper and compact in lower. The above indicators in soil layer above 20 cm basically met the normal requirements of apple trees, whereas soil layer below 20 cm exceeded the threshold for healthy growth of apple trees. The main reasons for soil compaction below the subsurface layer were poor soil aggregation, the lack of soil organic matter, less human disturbance during fruit planting, and the movement of scattered clay particles to the lower layer. With increasing years of fruit planting, soil compaction became more severe.