Effect of size and surrounding forest vegetation on chemical properties of soil in forest gaps

doi:10.3832/ifor0940-007

Effect of size and surrounding forest vegetation on chemical properties of soil in forest gaps

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages 67-72 (2015)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0940-007
Published: Jun 04, 2014 - Copyright © 2015 SISEF

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Forest gaps have different microclimatic conditions as compared to the surrounding areas, depending on gap size and surrounding forest types and affecting the biological, chemical, physical, and hydrological processes in the forest openings. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of forest gap size and surrounding forest cover type (beech or mixed stands) on the soil of forest opening by analyzing several soil chemical soil properties (pH, electrical conductivity - EC, organic matter - OM, and nutrient content). The study was conducted in the Yuvacik watershed in Izmit (Turkey) and a total of 31 forest gaps of different size (1.44-37.33 ha) and elevations (848-1169 m a.s.l.) were studied. Gaps were divided into three groups with size 0-5 ha, 5-15 ha, and >15 ha. Results showed that forest gap size significantly affected all the investigated chemical properties of the soil, except for soil pH. As gap size increased, sodium (Na⁺) concentration in the soil decreased from 22.72 to 19.57 mg L^-1 while potassium (K⁺) and magnesium (Mg⁺²) concentrations increased from 83.88 to 134.62 mg L^-1 and from 59.46 to 123.96 mg L^-1, respectively. Medium-sized gap soils had the lowest OM content, as well as the lowest calcium (Ca⁺²) and nitrogen (N⁺³) concentrations. Surrounding forest types significantly influenced soil chemical properties in the openings, except for EC, N⁺³, and phosphorus (P-PO₄^-3). Soils in the gaps surrounded by mixed forest had significantly lower pH but higher OM content, K⁺, Na⁺, Ca⁺², and Mg⁺²concentrations than soils in beech forest gaps.

Keywords

Forest Openings, Forest Ranges, Plant Nutrients, Soil Chemistry, Forest Soils

Authors’ address

(1)

Faculty of Forestry, Department of Watershed Management, Düzce University, 81620 Düzce (Turkey)

(2)

Faculty of Forestry, Department of Watershed Management, Istanbul University, 34473 Bahçeköy, Istanbul (Turkey)

Corresponding author

Mehmet Özcan
mehmetozcan@duzce.edu.tr

Citation

Özcan M, Gökbulak F (2015). Effect of size and surrounding forest vegetation on chemical properties of soil in forest gaps. iForest 8: 67-72. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0940-007

Academic Editor

Giustino Tonon

Paper history

Received: Dec 20, 2012
Accepted: Feb 15, 2014

First online: Jun 04, 2014
Publication Date: Feb 02, 2015
Publication Time: 3.63 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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