Litterfall in relation to stand parameters and climatic factors in Pinus brutia forests in Turkey

ABSTRACT

With this study we investigated the effective factors on annual amount of total litterfall and needle litterfall in Pinus brutia forests and estimated them with a regression model based on certain stand parameters. We studied 27 permanent plots representing different stand structure and environmental conditions in South-Western Turkey. Litterfall was collected in three month intervals corresponding to each of four seasons for a three-year period. We found a significant relationship between litterfall and stand properties such as crown closure (%), basal area (m² ha⁻¹), stand stem volume (m³ ha⁻¹), above-ground biomass (t ha⁻¹), mean annual volume increment (m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) and site index (T = 75). Similar relationships also hold true between litterfall and each of such climatic factors as seasonal mean temperature (°C), relative humidity (%) and temperature/precipitation ratio (dimensionless). The mean annual litterfall considerably varied depending on stand characteristics and certain environmental factors. Both needle litterfall and total litterfall may be predicted for long term by regression models using certain stand parameters. Models developed for litterfall of P. brutia forests in this study may be used for national C inventory in Turkey.

KEYWORDS:

• Litterfall
• Pinus brutia
• carbon inventory
• climatic factors

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Turkish General Di­rectorate of Forestry in a framework of a research project (Project No: 19.6307/2013-2016). The authors are grateful to Dr. Kani Isik from Akdeniz University, Antalya, for his review and valuable suggestions on the earlier version of the manuscript, to Dr. Kursad Ozkan from Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, for his support for statistical analyses and to Dr. Joe Ackerman from Biosystems Engineering University of Manitoba Winnipeg MB for reviewing the English language of the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.