ABSTRACT
Many of the physical properties important for assessing soils in agricultural systems are the
same for forest soils. However, because of the nature of forest soils and terrain associated
with forest ecosystems, the most appropriate methods for agricultural soils are not always
suitable for forest soils. Coarse fragments, large roots, and steep slopes limit the suitability of
some methods for forest soils (Page-Dumroese et al. 1999). In addition, surface organic
horizons cover many forest soils and measuring their physical properties such as bulk density
requires different sampling methods than mineral soils.
