Author/Authors :
aytekin, mustafa istanbul university - institute of graduate education, İstanbul, Turkey , gökbulak, ferhat istanbul university - faculty of forestry - department of watershed management, İstanbul, Turkey
Abstract :
The main goal of this study was to assess the effect of coppice forest removal on soil moisture and tempera- ture (e.g., maximum, minimum and mean daily temperatures) along with some selected soil properties. The study was conducted in the Belgrad Forest in Istanbul. A coppice forest plot was selected in the forestland. Half of the plot was cleared as a treatment site while other half was left as a control plot. The plots were 100 m by 100 m in size. Soil moisture and temperature values were recorded at hourly intervals at 1 m and 50 cm soil depths, respectively. Soil samples in disturbed and undisturbed areas were collected at 0–5 cm soil depth and analyzed for saturation capacity (SC), hydraulic conductivity (HC), bulk density (BD), particle density (PD), total porosity (TP), sand silt and clay contents, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, loss on ignition (LOI), and organic matter content (OM). Two-tailed paired student t-test were used to compare means at an alpha level of 0.05. Results revealed that daily soil moisture significantly increased from 32% to 37%, daily temperature from 14.5oC to 15.9oC, daily maximum temperature from 14.6oC to 16.2oC, and daily minimum temperature 14.4oC to 15.7oC following coppice forest clearance. Clearcutting of woody vegetation did not affect the soil sand, silt and clay contents, HD, PD, pH, and EC values in the soil; however, it caused a significant increase from 1.3 g/cm3 to 1.5 g/cm3 in the BD and decreases from 6% to 3% in the OM content, from 17% to 8% in the LOI, from 52% to 46% in the TP, from 51 cm/min to 32 cm/min in the HC, and from 33% to 24% in the SC of the soil.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
Forest clearance , soil temperature , soil moisture , Turkish forestry , vegetation removal
