Changes in vegetation and soil properties under semi-nomadic animal raising areas in highlands, rangelands of Turkey

Ali Koc,H Ibrahim Erkovan,Yunus Serin

doi:10.12944/cwe.3.1.02

Abstract

Animal raising depending on rangeland is the main economic activity for settlements especially for the semi-nomadic animal raisers, in highlands of Turkey. Overgrazing and erosion are the main problems in this rangeland. The aim of this study was to determine changes in vegetation and soil properties among rangeland sites especially in the highlands of Turkey grazed during different parts of the year due to semi-nomadic animal raising system. Three rangeland sites, near permanent settlement (site I), midpoint between permanent and temporary settlement (site II), and near the temporary settlement (site III) were selected. In each site, botanical composition, canopy coverage, range condition score, and some surface soil properties such as texture, organic matter content, aggregate stability, CaCO3 content, pH, plant available P, and K content were determined. Grass frequency changed from 29 to 50 % among sites and the frequency was the lowest at the site III and the highest at the site I. The canopy coverage was the highest at the site III and the lowest at the site II. All results have indicated that overgrazing is the main problem in the rangelands under semi-nomadic animal raising areas as in throughout Turkey.

Highlights

Animal raising on rangelands is the main agricultural activity in highlands of Turkey due to short, cool summer and extreme winter conditions which restrict the growth of many crops
The rangelands around permanent settlement areas suffer from early, late season and heavy grazing pressure, whereas, the rangelands around temporary settlements and between them can be excluded from early and late season grazing pressure, because there are no domestic activity in the areas in this period
Three rangeland sites were selected for this study, the first site was close to the permanent settlement at the altitude of 1650 m, the second was located between permanent and temporary settlement at the altitude of 1950 m, and third was close to the temporary settlement at the altitude of 2300 m

Summary

Introduction

Animal raising on rangelands is the main agricultural activity in highlands of Turkey due to short, cool summer and extreme winter conditions which restrict the growth of many crops. In seminomadic animal raising areas, animal owners keep their animals near winter settlements from autumn to following summer and take their animals to uplands for temporary settlement during summer months. There are no rangelands that preserve their quality under mismanagement anywhere in the world (Herbel and Pieper, 1991). Heavy grazing always reduces range productivity (Holechek et al, 2004), plant canopy cover (Herbel and Pieper, 1991; Koc and Gokkus, 1996) and changes botanical composition toward to poor quality (Oztas et al, 2003). Overgrazing and its attendant effects reduce plant cover and increase trampling which the most important factor is contributing to degradation of rangeland soils (Branson et al, 1981)

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Conclusion