Influence of Recreational Human Trampling on Some Soil Physical and Hydraulic Properties of Ardabil Fandoghloo Forest Park

This research was carried out to consider the effects of recreational human trampling on some soil physical and hydraulic properties in Fandoghloo Forest Park of Ardabil. A completely randomized design was conducted with three treatments of no trampling, moderate trampling and intensive trampling at five replicates.Water infiltration into soil under unsaturated condition was measured at the matric suctions (h) of 2, 5, 10 and 15 cm using tension infiltrometer. The infiltration data was modeled using Wooding method and then saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and macroscopic capillary length (λc) using Gardner equation were calculated. The results showed that although trampling levels could not significantly affect the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and soil sorptivitiy at different levels h, Ks and λc,but intensive recreational human trampling significantly decreased organic carbon (68.62%), total porosity (25.42%), field capacity moisture (46.81%), permanent wilting point moisture (51.72%) and final infiltration rate at h=15 cm (50%) and increased bulk density (46.07%) and soil penetration resistance (75.57%) in relation to the no trampling treatment; as a result, intensive recreational human trampling reduced physical and hydraulic quality of the forest soil.