Determination of incoming solar radiation in major tree species in Turkey.

Light requirements and spatial distribution of major forest tree species in Turkey hasn’t been analyzed yet. Continuous surface solar radiation data, especially at mountainous-forested areas, are needed to put forward this relationship between forest tree species and solar radiation. To achieve this, GIS-based modeling of solar radiation is one of the methods used in rangelands to estimate continuous surface solar radiation. Therefore, mean monthly and annual total global solar radiation maps of whole Turkey were computed spatially using GRASS GIS software “r.sun” model under clear-sky (cloudless) conditions. 147498 pure forest stand point-based data were used in the study for calculating mean global solar radiation values of all the major forest tree species of Turkey. Beech had the lowest annual mean total global solar radiation value of 1654.87 kWh m-2, whereas juniper had the highest value of 1928.89 kWh m-2. The rank order of tree species according to the mean monthly and annual total global solar radiation values, using a confidence level of p < 0.05, was as follows: Beech < Spruce < Fir species < Oak species < Scotch pine < Red pine < Cedar < Juniper.The monthly and annual solar radiation values of sites and light requirements of forest trees ranked similarly.

Land use pattern at Alacam mountainous range land (Submediterranean-Turkey) due to edaphic and physiographical factors.

Soil degradation is perceived as a major threat in the Mediterranean region due to land use pattern and projected climate change. As the high altitudinal mountainous lands are sensitive lands, the land use patterns at Alaçam mountains were investigated in this study. The assessment of land use distribution is arranged with the altitude, exposure, slope and bedrock parameters. The spatial database of project was created using GRASS GIS open source software (GRASS Development Team, 2008). The scanned land use and main rock map of the project area rectified, digitized, and attributes of land use and bedrocks were entered into the database tables. Also raster SRTM3 data were imported into these databases for making physiographical factor (elevation, slope, aspect) maps. Our findings illustrated that the whole area of Alaçam mountains is 282 480 ha where most of the area of the mass is located between 700-1300 m asl with 200 585 ha corresponding to 71% of the whole area. We detected two kinds of mis-land use; (1) agricultural activities applied at the slopes above 17% (representing 35 220 ha) and agricultural activities applied on metamorphic rocks (representing 872 ha). Total misuse of lands reached 36 092 ha comprised 12.77% of the whole area.

Morphological, anatomical and ecological studies on some Orchis (Orchidaceae) taxa of Mediterranean region, Turkey.

In this study, nine species mainly distributed in Mediterranean (+ Aegean region) region of Turkey were investigated in terms of 15 morphological, 16 anatomical and 5 ecological characteristics. Those species are Orchis anatolica Boiss., Orchis italica Poiret, Orchis laxiflora Lam., Orchis morio L. subsp. morio, Orchis provincialis Balbis ex DC., Orchis purpurea Hudson, Orchis sancta L., Orchis simia Lam., Orchis tridentata Scop. In conclusion, we found that O. laxiflora was characterized by the longest plant height and O. purpurea had the biggest tuber; whereas O. italica was identified by the highest number of leafs and O. purpurea had the longest leaf length and widest leaf width. Additionally, the other species which were characterized by different morphological and anatomical parameters are as follow: O. sancta with the longest bract length, O. italica and O. simia with the longest sepal lengths, O. laxiflora with the shortest and widest labellum, O. simia with the longest petal length, O. sancta with longest caudiculum length, O. anatolica with the longest spur length and O. provincialis with the longest ovary length. Particularly, O. laxiflora and O. purpurea species present essential divergence from the aspect of anatomical features of leaf surface in comparison with the other species. Morphological and anatomical traits of the species were attributed to the habitat selections of the species since that character differs along with each species.

Studies on the chorology, ecology, morphology and conservation strategies of Orchis anatolica Boiss (Orchidaceae).

Orchis anatolica Boiss. is one of the Mediterranean species, which has wide distribution in Turkey. In this study, plant and soil samples of O. anatolica were taken from 26 natural populations in Turkey. There were one hundred ninety locality records in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, but we recorded two hundred sixteen localities thus adding twenty six new localities to the list. Twenty morphological parameters of O. anatolica were evaluated. The correlation coefficients between generative characters and vegetative characters were lower than the character groups of correlation coefficients between themselves. It is found from sea level upto 1700 m. Most common habitats of O. anatolica are macchie, forest lands and stony soils. The soils are loamy, clayey- loam and sandy-clayey- loam and rich in organic matter. The pH of the soils varies from 5.87 to 7.92. Although O. anatolica has wide distribution in Turkey, different types of land uses are posing a threat for it and restricting its distributional area. Lacking the legal regulations about conservation of the O. anatolica populations is one of the most striking requirement.

Heating induced changes in mineral nitrogen and organic carbon in relation with temperature and time.

Heating effects on carbon and mineral nitrogen contents of soils within different land use types were investigated in this study. With this intention we collected soil samples from 3 different land use types which are abandoned agricultural lands (AAL), shrub land (SL) and Oak forest land (OFL) and are in neighborhood with each other. The sampling was made at mid-summer to provide a better correspondence between factual burning conditions as well. Soils are slightly acidic (pH between 4.60-5.72) and sandy, sandy loamy textured. At the study site the vegetation type is pasture at AAL, Cystus and Rubus sp. dominated shrubs at SL and mixture of Oak species such as Quercus petrea, Q. robur, Q. cerris and Q. frainetto at OFL. The results we found revealed that heating temperature has more remarkable effect on C losses and soil NH4 +-N re-mineralization and losses of NH4 +-N. Besides we could not detect remarkable differences between total N and NO3- amounts. Heating time created significant differences between NH4 +-N amounts for different land use types where SL soils showed significant difference for all temperature levels. Heating soils at 100oC created only slight differences at C and NH4 +-N budgets but heating at 200oC caused to striking results at NH4 +-N budgets and heating at 350oC led to only slight increase at NH4 +-N budget. As the temperature increased the C loss also increased linearly.

Investigation of lichen populations and their similarity analysis in Serif Yuksel Forest, Turkey.

Sorensen similarity indices of lichen species in Serif Yuksal forest ranged between 0.29 and 0.84. A linear relation was found between species number sum of two lichen populations and their similarity indices. The linear equation is Y=0.0076x + 0.1467 and the R2 of the equation is 0.2476 which is significant at p<0.001. There has been identified a linear relation between the average similarity index of the sites and fir participation percentage. The obtained equation is Y=0,0009x + 0,5271 and the R2 of the equation is 0,2853 which is significant at p<0.002. In the pure fir stands there has been found a linear relation between the altitude difference and similarity index. The obtained equation is Y= -0.0011x + 0.6962 and the R2 of the equation is 0.1755 which as significant at p<0.001.

Physical, chemical and pedogenetical properties of soils in relation with altitude at Kazdagi upland black pine forest.

In this study an attempt was made to investigate the physical, chemical and pedogenetical soil properties of black pine forests at over 1400 metre (m) altitude of Kazdagi mountainous uplands. Soil profiles (37 numbers) were dug, examined and sampled considering the horizons and soil volume weight, fine soil weight, stoniness, pH, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon and pedogenesis alterations were tried to be explored in relation with elevating altitude. While the altitude increased, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen values decreased at A horizon, and pH decreased at Bw horizons. Soil volume weight, fine soil weight, stoniness values of A horizon has positively and strong correlation with elevation with the coefficient values 0.699, 0.518 and 0.573 respectively at 0.01 significance. The highest regression values between altitude and volume weight, soil organic carbon contents (%) and soil total nitrogen contents (%) were detected with R2 coefficients 0.489, 0.295 and 0.247 for A and 0.556, 0.311 and 0.286 for Bw horizons respectively. The achieved results reveal that the elevation effect is remarkable in particular for the uppermost soil horizons. Furthermore the soil generation in fact functions well up to 1550 m altitude at Kazdagi mountainous land where we determined that at upper elevations Inceptisols replace with Alfisols in comparison with each other.

Analysis of the distribution of epiphytic lichens on Cedrus libani in Elmali Research Forest (Antalya, Turkey).

In order to evaluate environmental factors limiting distribution of species, diversity of epiphytic lichens was studied in 34 sites along an altitudinal gradient from 1300 to 1900 m on north-facing and south-facing slopes of Elmali Cedar Research Forest (Antalya province, Turkey) regarding the dispersion of lichens in different tree-diameter classes (0-15 cm, 15-30 cm, 30-45 cm, 45-60 cm and >75 cm). The results showed that the relationship between diameter classes with the number of lichen species was R2=0.6022. The highest number of species was in the diameter class of 30-45 cm. There was a clear relationship between all parameters, diameter, altitude and aspect, with species richness. Changes in the community structure of the epiphytic lichen vegetation were detected along an altitudinal gradient revealing the highest species richness in the highest zone. The elevation affected both the number and the composition of the lichen communities and the relationship between the altitudinal zones with number of lichen species was designated as R2=0.6462. The number of species was higher in the north aspects than in the south aspects in all diameter classes. The species number depending on the altitude was also higher in the north-facing slopes than in the south-facing slopes.

A dendroecological study on Pinus nigra Arn. at different altitudes of northern slopes of Kazdaglari, Turkey.

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between tree ring widths of Pinus nigra in Kazdaglari having humid and very humid climatic conditions. Sixty two trees were cut from 24 sampled points from different altitudes in Kazdaglari to measure treering widths. To determine the responses to the climate, correlation coefficients between treering widths and climatic data were calculated during biological years from October of the previous year to September of the current year In lower altitudes, where climate type is humid, spring and summer precipitation affect the growth of tree rings, but they are not statistically limiting factors. In higher altitudes, this effect is weaker. As a result, we can conclude that the negative effects of the drought are still not clear on the Pinus nigra trees under humid and very humid climatic conditions and at the northern slopes in submediterranean mountainous regions in Turkey.