Potential impact of land use change on land productivity dynamics with focus on land degradation in a sub-humid terrestrial ecosystem

Abstract

The aim of this study was to generate a land productivity dynamics (LPD) map of a degraded catchment located in sub-humid terrestrial ecosystem via a land degradation assessment using three indicators, namely land use and land cover, land productivity, and soil organic carbon density. The study was carried out in two adjacent microcatchments located in Gediz River Basin and conducted between 2001 and 2015. For this purpose, Landsat satellite images were used to determine changing of land use and land cover and vegetation density. In addition, 319 soil samples were collected from surface and subsurface soil depths to detect soil organic carbon density of the study area in May 2015. According to the study results, in more than 23% of the catchments’ area of approx. 3896 ha, land productivity is observed to decline while about 24% shows early signs of decline level. Some of these areas used under agricultural cropping, overgrazed pasture, and artificial areas showed evidence of soil erosion problem. Only very small area of the catchment shows stable and increasing land productivity dynamics trend during the 14-year period.