Soil pressure, deformation, and changes in soil physical parameters caused by combine harvester wheeling in 2017

In recent years, agricultural machinery became steadily larger and heavier. Especially under wet soil conditions, when soil is susceptible to compaction, heavy wheel load field traffic can lead to harmful soil compaction. This data set contains soil data from a wheeling experiment with an agricultural vehicle (2-axle combine harvester with bunker; total weight: 17 t). The experiment was conducted in 2017 on an agricultural test field in Adenstedt (Hildesheim district, Lower Saxony, Germany) during the harvest campaign. The soil type is Stagnic Luvisol derived from Loess and was conventionally tilled with a plough up to a depth of 28 cm. The cultivated crop was winter wheat. For the wheeling experiment, a combine harvester with full bunker volume passed defined plots in the field. In the inner field area, the number of wheel passes were 2 and in the headlands the number of wheel passes were 8. The sampling sites were both located in the inner field area and in the headlands. To investigate changes in soil physical parameters, soil structure, and soil functions caused by combine harvester driving, undisturbed soil cores (100 cm³) were taken before (unwheeled) and after wheeling (wheeled). The unwheeled soil samples were taken in 20, 35, and 50 depth and the wheeled soil samples in 20, 35, and 50 cm depth. In the inner field area, two soil pits were sampled per wheeling variant and in the headlands, one soil pit was sampled per wheeling variant. Additionally, the soil biopores were counted in every one of the three soil depths. A total of 30 undisturbed soil samples were taken per each soil pit, 10 per each soil depth. 5 of the 10 undisturbed sampling rings were used to investigate soil water retention and the other 5 for saturated hydraulic conductivity. The determination of pF values was conducted in the soil laboratory using sand and clay boxes as well as pressure pots according to DIN ISO 11274. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was analyzed using a soil water permeameter (open system) according to ISO / FDIS 17312. The soil parameters total pore volume, air capacity, field capacity, usable field capacity, permanent wilting point, dry bulk density, and current water content during soil sampling were derived from the soil laboratory results.