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Full Length
Research Paper
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The effects of land
use/land cover change and demographic processes (1950 -2008)
on soil properties in the Gökçay catchment, Turkey
C. Göl1*, M. Çakir2, S. Ediş1
and H. Yilmaz1
1Departmant
of Watershed Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of
Çankiri Karatekin, 18200, Çankiri, Turkey.
2Departmant
of Soil Science and Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, University
of Çankiri Karatekin, 18200, Çankiri, Turkey.
*Corresponding
author. E-mail:
ceyhungol@karatekin.edu.tr.
Accepted 8 January, 2010 |
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Abstract |
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The objective of this study was to analyse the effects of
land use/land cover change (1955 - 2008) and migration (1950
- 2008) on the hydrological processes and soil physical
properties in the Gökçay river catchment. The study area is
located in Çankiri province, Ilgaz district, and Gökçay
river catchment (41°04'N, 40°55'E). The necessary data were obtained
from forest stand maps (1955 and 2008) and evaluated with
geographic information system in order to introduce the
effect of this land use/land cover change on soil properties
and to assess the patterns during a 53-years period. The
largest change has been in the forest openings. The forest
has decreased from 25 to 7%. These areas have been used as
forest, agricultural and settlement areas. Five sites were
sampled in an unchanged forest, cultivated areas, natural
rangeland, and sites that were changed from cultivated area
to rangeland 10 and 50 years ago. Bulk density, hydraulic
conductivity, water stable aggregates, soil organic matter
and total nitrogen decreased in cultivated soil as compared
to the forest soil. The soil properties of the permanent
rangelands and of the cultivated field, converted to
rangelands 10 and 50 years ago, were similar. The result
showed that it is important to understand effects of spatial
and temporal changes of land use/land cover and demographic
structure their effects on landscape pattern and soil
properties to dis-close the implications for land use
planning and management.
Key
words:
Land use/ land cover, demographic processes, soil, catchment. |
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