Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Environmental Geology, cilt.56, sa.8, ss.1563-1575, 2009 (SCI-Expanded)
In highlands of semiarid Turkey, ecosystems have been significantly transformed through human actions, and today changes are taking place very rapidly, causing harmful consequences such as soil degradation. This paper examines two neighboring land use types in Indagi Mountain Pass, Cankiri, Turkey, to determine effects of the conversion of Blackpine (Pinus nigra Arn. subsp. pallasiana) plantation from grassland 40 years ago on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil erodibility (USLE-K). For this purpose, a total of 302 disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were taken at irregular intervals from two sites and from two soil depths of 0-10 cm (D1) and 10-20 cm (D 2). In terms of SOC, conversion did not make any statistical difference between grassland and plantation; however, there were statistically significant differences with soil depth within each land use, and SOC contents significantly decreased with the soil depth (P < 0.05) and mostly accumulated in D1. SOC values were 2.4 and 1.8% for grassland and 2.8 and 1.6% for plantation, respectively, at D1 and D2. USLE-K values also statistically differed significantly with the land use, and in contrast to the statistics of SOC, there was no change in USLE-K with the soil depth. Since USLE-K was estimated using SOC, hydraulic conductivity (HC) and soil textural composition - sand (S), silt (Si), and clay (C) contents of soils - as well as SOC did not change with the land use, we ascribed the changes of USLE-K with the land uses to the differences in the HC as strongly affected by the interactions between SOC and contents of S, Si, and C. On an average, the soil of the grassland (USLE-K = 0.161 t ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm -1) was more erodible than those of the plantation (USLE-K = 0.126 t ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1). Additionally, topographic factors, such as aspect and slope, were statistically effective on spatial distribution of the USLE-K and SOC. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.