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Changes in soil microbial biomass and aggregate stability under different land uses in the northeastern Turkey

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Abstract

The characteristics of three neighboring soils from the NE of Turkey were evaluated in order to elucidate the effect of different land-use management on the soil aggregate stability and microbial biomass in Galyan-Atasu dam watershed. Three experimental sites corresponding to three land uses were selected. The first site is a hazelnut orchard (agriculture), the second site is a forest dominated by mature coniferous trees, and the third site is grassland. Soil aggregate stability values for the 1–2-mm aggregates increased from forest (lowest) to agriculture (highest) in the current study. The percentage of clay was highest in agriculture soils with 33.57 %, and overall stability values increased according to soil clay content. The lower aggregate stability in the forest soils probably reflects the highly silty texture soils with 11.95 % compared to agriculture and grassland. However, in our study, there were no significant correlations between aggregate stability and organic C concentrations either in cultivated or forested soils. Aggregate stability depended more on the organic matter content when the organic matter content was greater than 50 or 60 mg g−1. Below that threshold, aggregate stability may be mainly related to clay content. Furthermore, the results confirmed that higher percentages of Cmic/Corg in agricultural soils are the result of more labile organic substrates maintained in the soil, allowing a higher microbial biomass C per unit of soil organic C. This work gives a better understanding of the relationships between land-use type and soil aggregation and allows to know the soil response to different types of management in humid environments.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Karadeniz Technical University Scientific Research Projects Committee for financial support (Project No: 8560).

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  1. Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey

    O. Kara & M. Baykara

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  1. O. Kara
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Correspondence to O. Kara.

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Kara, O., Baykara, M. Changes in soil microbial biomass and aggregate stability under different land uses in the northeastern Turkey. Environ Monit Assess 186, 3801–3808 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3658-0

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