title: The impact of hazelnuts in land-use changes on soil carbon and in situ soil respiration dynamics.
abstract: Our study assessed the impact of hazelnuts (Coryllus avellena L.) in land-use conversion from forest (F) to agricultural land (AL) on various attributes of soil respiration dynamics, such as soil elemental carbon (C%) content, microbial respiration, bulk density, soil pH, electrical conductivity, and seasonal variations. We developed soil C% models to compare soil C% between F and AL soils. Four field trips were conducted in the winter and summer of 2008 and the spring and fall of 2009 in the Karasu region of Turkey. During each trip, 42 sites were visited F (n = 21) and AL (n = 21). Our results showed that hazelnuts plantations in AL could reduce elemental C% by 27% (winter 2008), 16% (summer 2008), 41% (spring 2009), and 22% (fall 2009) in the four seasons studied when compared to F soils. In situ soil respiration was also reduced by 31% (spring 2008), 67% (fall 2008), 88% (spring 2009), and 79% (fall 2009) in AL soils over F soils. The percent of organic matter of AL soils was declined by 36% (winter 2008), 23% (summer 2008), 34% (spring 2009), and 26% (fall 2009) in comparison to F soils. Significant reductions in the correlation between C%-percent clay and C%-electrical conductivity were also recorded for AL soils over F soils. Furthermore, AL soils showed higher bulk density (7.4% and 7%) when compared to F soils. We also found that in situ soil respiration had significant seasonal correlations (p < 0.05) with soil pH (0.537), soil temperature, and percent clay (-0.486) in F soils (summer 2008, spring 2009). Additionally, we found that seasonal variations of four sampling seasons had a moderate impact on in situ respiration and that the differences were statistically significant, except for the winter-summer and spring-fall seasonal pairs. Linear regression C models showed significant differences for F and AL soils.
authors: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, 34342 Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: volkan.oral@gmail.com.
authors: HasanVolkan
authors: H
authors: Oral
authors: Mert
authors: M
authors: Guney
authors: Mehmet Ali
authors: MA
authors: Kucuker
authors: Turgut T
authors: TT
authors: Onay
authors: Nadim K
authors: NK
authors: Copty
authors: Baris
authors: B
authors: Mater
authors: Orhan
authors: O
authors: Yenigun
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D031211:Corylus / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D017753:Ecosystem; D016468:Forestry; D008954:Models, Biological; D012621:Seasons; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002244:Carbon
keywords: Agricultural land; Forest soils; Hazelnuts; In situ soil respiration; Land-use change; Organic matter; Seasonal variation; Soil carbon