ABSTRACT
Arid and semi-arid climates and antropojen effects have caused rapid deterioration of the natural resources in the watershed. The main objectives of the study were to determine the correlation between soil properties and flora and to examine some soil properties and floristic composition under natural forest and afforestration. The topographical, geological and stand viewing maps of the watershed belong to 1955 and 2006 years were eximaned in the study. According to this study, the 14.5% rate of black pine forest in 1955 increased to 35.8% in 2006. Degraded forest, degraded black pine and agricultural area decreased respectively to 5.7, 1.8 and 15.8% in 51 years. The richest families in the research area were Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Boraginaceae, Apiaceae and Rosaceae. The rate of the richest families was 71.75% in the total species, the remaining 22 families were scattered to 28.25% in proportion of species.
ABSTRACT
This research was carried out in Dagdami river catchment located in the highlands of the Black sea region of Turkey. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of representative land-use and land-cover types of largely deforested areas of Black sea region on soil properties. We measured these effects by quantifying some soil analyses were done on soil samples were taken at two depths (0-5 and 5-15 cm) and two aspects (N and S). According to the results of statistical analysis, satured hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), bulk density (BD), water stable aggregates (WSA), soil organic matter (SOM), soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen significantly change with land use type and aspect. Results have shown significantly higher values of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) in natural forest top soil (82.4 cm3.h-1 on average) compared to grasslands soils (8.4 cm3 h-1) and hazelnut garden soils (11.5 cm3 h-1) and corn field soils (30.0 cm3.h-1). It was determined that WSA was greater in the pasture and forest soils than in cultivated soils. In addition, Ksat was found the highest value in the forest soils at all aspects while, SOM and SOC of forest soils are higher than other land use types. On the other hand, amount of SOM and SOC of soils of grassland, hazelnut garden and corn field are low level and close to each other. Soils under hazelnut garden (1.1 g cm-3) and grassland (1.1 g cm-3) have higher bulk density than the adjacent soils under forests (0.7 g cm-3) and corn field (1.0 g cm-3) for two different aspects. Furthermore, after long term continuous cultivation of the natural forest soil, it was determined that some physical and chemical characteristics of it has been significantly changed.
ABSTRACT
Natural forestland soils in the high land mountain ecosystems on the eastern Black sea region of Turkey are being seriously degraded and destructed due to intensive agricultural practices. In this study we examined four soil profiles selected from four sites in each of three adjacent land use types which are native forest, pasture and cultivated fields with corn and hazelnut to compare the soil physical, chemical and morphological properties modified after natural forestland transformation into cultivated land. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from four sites. The effects of agricultural practices on soil properties taken from each three adjacent land use types were most clearly detected in the past 50 years with the land use change. Land use change and subsequent tillage practices resulted in significant decreases in organic matter, total porosity, total nitrogen and reduced soil aggregates stability. However, contents of available P were improved by application of phosphorous fertilizers in cultivated system. There was also a significant change in bulk density among cultivated, pasture and natural forest soils. Depending upon the increase in bulk density and disruption of pores by cultivation, total porosity decreased accordingly. The data show that long term continuous cultivation of the natural forest soils resulted in changes in physical and chemical characteristics of soils.