Soil characteristics

For each site, the sampling will be conducted at 3 measurement points located at 25 m, 35 m, and 45 m perpendicular to the accessible road. The sampling protocol for each site will involve the collection of the leaf litter or organic soil layer, and measurement of volumetric soil water content, soil bulk density.

Organic layer is collected using a rectangular grid (in this case a picture frame) of 21.59 cm x 27.95 cm laid over the ground. Measurements of its depth will be recorded from each corner of the picture frame. For its volumetric water content measurements, the organic layer (leaf litter and organic soil if present) will be scraped from the mineral soil layer and placed in a labeled zip-locked bag (site and sample number) for subsequent oven drying.

Volumetric soil moisture measurements will be performed within the scraped region using the Hydra probe instrument. At each forested site, the sampling protocol will be conducted at 3 measurement points with 3 replicates (9 soil moisture measurements total).

Bulk density sample will be taken from the exposed mineral soil, and placed in a labeled zip-locked bag for weighing and oven drying for calculation of volumetric soil water content.

Soil temperature measurements at 6 cm depth will be collected simultaneously to soil moisture with the Hydra Probe instrument.

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