Effects of Land Covers on Hydro-Physical Soil Characteristics in Semi-Arid Environments: The Case of Gumushane-Siran, Turkey

Abstract

Land degradation is already one of the major problems affecting the world. Land degradation by soil erosion is one of the most serious ecological problems and environmental issues in many sites of arid and semiarid regions. There has been an increasing concern regarding the semiarid highlands of Turkey that degradation of these ecosystems results in excessive soil erosion, ecosystem degradation, and loss of natural resources. This paper, therefore, explores the impact of land cover in a linkage to the soil erodibility indices and some soil properties of Koruluk (Gümüşhane-Turkey) dam watershed. Soil samples were taken from soil profiles opened in 78 sample pilots among the lands which border each other in the same altitude levels and same slopes on the andesite-basalt bedrock in the southern aspect group according to 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths. Sand, silt, clay, soil organic matter, dispersion ratio, erosion ratio, structural stability index, aggregate stability, clay dispersion ratio, field capacity, available water capacity, bulk density, total porosity, soil pH and electrical conductivity analyses were performed in soil samples. The results obtained about land cover were tested by variance analysis. The relationships between the selected soil characteristics were determined by correlation analysis. Degraded scotch pine forest soils were observed to be more susceptible to erosion compared to degraded oak forests and open space areas. Consequently, it was revealed that soils that developed from similar parent material in semiarid ecosystem and under all land covers were susceptible to erosion. The fact that the watershed supplies Koruluk dam built for irrigation water production makes these results quite significant. Agricultural activities are very important in the protection and continuity of the socio-economic situation of local people. The continuity of agricultural activities, in one respect, is associated with the availability of irrigation in this semi-arid region. Therefore, priority should be given to the necessary rehabilitation, planning and management studies in Koruluk dam watershed, and the results of this study should be considered.

Prediction of pine mistletoe infection using remote sensing imaging: A comparison of the artificial neural network model and logistic regression model

“…Artificial neural network is an information processing technology inspired by biological nervous systems (Usta et al, 2018). ANN also generates nerve cells related to each other, as in biological neural networks.…”