Soil Bulk Density at Varying Disturbance Levels

Colleen Ebert

Physical Geography – Stockton University

5 April 2021
Objective Statement:

This study was conducted in order to analyze the difference of soil bulk densities at three
different levels of disturbance in the forest management area at the Galloway campus of Stockton
University. The results that were found could be useful in assessing the impact that heightened levels of
disturbance have on soil and its density. To execute this study, 10 separate soil samples were collected for
3 different disturbance levels (Low, Medium, High) from the Stockton University campus on March 1,
2021 and March 4, 2021. Each soil sample was dried using a drying oven operating at 105 °C and the dry
soil sample weight was taken and divided by the volume measurement to determine bulk density. The
resulting number was used to look up the type of soil using the online Web Soil Survey provided by the
USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. The collections of bulk density data were assessed using
R Studio where it is concluded that the data are normally distributed through assessment of p values
found using the Shapiro Wilk test.

Site Description:

This research and data collection was preformed to determine the types of soils found in the
Galloway campus of Stockton University in Atlantic County, New Jersey. This area of study holds a
mean annual temperature of 16.94°C and an average of 1104.9 mm of precipitation per year (Arguez et al,
2010). Located adjacent to the Pine Barrens, this area has over 50% Coniferous trees that make up the
forest space studied (NJDEP, 2010). The data for the soil in this area comes from the NRCS Web Soil
Survey, which reported that the soil found on the Stockton Campus is GamB/GamkB, also named
“Galloway”. GamB is described as loamy sand with a parent material of unconsolidated sandy marine
deposits that has poor drainage and is found on flats and dunes (NRCS). GamkB is described as loamy
sand is clayey substratum, found on 0 to 5 percent slopes (NRCS). This area of study holds all three
different disturbance levels with low disturbance meaning there are no visible trails, medium meaning
that there are trails but that they are inactive, and high disturbance meaning that there are active trails that
are used by both pedestrians and occasionally vehicles.

Statistical Methodology:

Data were evaluated for normality using the Shapiro Wilk test (Figure 1). Results of this test
showed that the data was not normally distributed (p=0.01727), therefore a Kruskall Wallis test (Figure 2)
was used to detect differences among the disturbance levels. Evaluation of disturbance levels using the
Kruskall Wallis test confirmed that the bulk density data from the different disturbance levels were not
normally distributed (p=0.001319). A p-value of 0.05 was used to determine significance for all tests.
Tests were run in R studio.

Figure 1: Shapiro Wilk test evaluation of soil samples

Figure 2: Kruskall Wallis test of soil samples

Results:

Significant differences in bulk density were found between the disturbance levels (Kruskall
Wallis p=0.00132). Bulk density measured in high disturbance area (mean = 1.278) was significantly
different from bulk density measured in moderate disturbance level (mean = 0.867)(p=0.00392) and low
disturbance level (mean = 0.789)(p=0.00076). Significant differences in bulk density were not measured
between moderate and low disturbance levels (p=0.6292).
Figure 3:Average bulk density measured in three disturbance levels on Stockton University's Galloway campus in Spring 2021.
Error bars represent one standard deviation. Letters denote statistical differences at the p=0.05 level (Kruskall Wallis & Dunn
tests)
Map:

ArcGis was utilized to make Figure 4 which details the location of the multiple different sample
sites as well as the level of disturbance and use of the areas.

Figure 4: ArcGis map creation of Stockton University's Galloway campus with respective land use areas
 References

Anthony Arguez, Imke Durre, Scott Applequist, Mike Squires, Russell Vose, Xungang Yin, and Rocky
Bilotta (2010). NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals (1981-2010). NOAA National Centers for
Environmental Information.

NJDEP (2010). Land use/land cover 2007 update, edition 20100712 (Land_lu_2007).
https://www.nj.gov/dep/gis. [March 18, 2021]