The effect of land use type/land cover and aspect on soil properties at the gokdere catchment in northwestern Turkey

Abstract

Different studies have shown that the effects of land use conversion on soil properties are variable, so that more researches that focus on different ecological regions and land use types are required. The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate the effects of land use types in two aspects (north and south) on soil properties and (2) to examine the impact of tillage and grazing on hydrological soil properties. Primarily, three different main land use type/land cover (LUTLC) were selected in north and south facing slope to investigate the soil properties, namely, forest, grassland, and agricultural land. Soil samples were taken from a soil depth of 30 cm. For these soil samples, various soil properties such as texture, dry bulk density (BD), soil organic matter (SOM), soil pH, water stable aggregates (WSA) field capacity, wilting point, infiltration rate, and saturated hydraulic capacity (Ks) were analyzed. According to the results BD, WSA, SOM, Ks, and infiltration rate significantly change with LUTLC and aspect. Soil characteristics negatively affected by tillage practices and grazing are SOM, WSA, infiltration rate, Ks, and BD. Finally, the findings indicated that tillage and over grazing, in semi - arid region, effected adversely on soil properties, and that over grazing damaged the hydrological properties of surface soil.