The Influence of Aspect on the Vegetation of Çataldağ

Sönmez, Süleyman; Macar, Nilgün; Demirözer, Ali İlksen

doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.137

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2), were similar to other studies (Sidari et al 2008, Li et al 2011, Ussiri and Lal 2013, Chen et al 2016. Although some studies found that pH decreases with increased soil depth (Sonmez et al 2014), the reverse has also been shown, as was found in this study and forage-based pastures in the subtropical region of southeastern United States (Sigua and Coleman 2010). However, the relationship between the soil mechanical properties and the slope aspect in this region requires further study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Controlling factors of plant community composition with respect to the slope aspect gradient in the Qilian Mountains

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Slope aspect can affect soil temperature and soil type distribution, which, in turn, is likely to influence plant community composition. Three Qilian mountains, located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China, with four distinct slope aspects including south‐facing (SF), southwest‐facing (SW), northwest‐facing (NW), and north‐facing (NF) slope aspects, were studied to investigate the impact of slope aspect on plant assemblages. The results indicated that the environmental conditions were favorable under the NF and NW slope aspects as the soil water, soil organic carbon (SOC), and soil total nitrogen (STN) contents were significantly higher, and soil temperature (ST) and soil bulk density (SBD) were significantly lower than under the SF and SW aspects. Under all slope aspects, however, SOC, STN, and soil total phosphate in the top 0.2 m of topsoil accounted for about 60% of its total quantity, to a soil depth of 0.6 m. The plant communities on the SF and SW slopes were found to be primarily composed of Poa pratensis, Potentilla anrisena, and Carex aridula. In contrast, the plant community on the NW slope was mainly composed of Kobresia humilis, Carex crebra, and Potentilla bifurca, while on the NF slope it was mainly composed of Picea crassifolia, Carex scabrirostris, and Polygonum macrophyllum. The order of the influence of environmental factors on species distributions was ST > SBD > sand > STN. Results suggest that the slope aspect has an important role in the regulation of the soil environment and plant assemblages and that ST and SBD were the main factors influencing plant community composition. Furthermore, evidence from this study suggests that these mountains will become increasingly vulnerable to global warming. Thus, the plant community composition on these mountains must be monitored continuously in order to allow for strategic adaptive management.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Controlling factors of plant community composition with respect to the slope aspect gradient in the Qilian Mountains

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Except for pH, changes of soil characteristics with soil depth were similar to others [40,65]. In most studies, they found that pH decreased with soil depth [66], but this was not the case in this study. pH of the top layer was significantly lower than other layers on each slope aspect, this may be caused by higher evaporation.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

Influence of Slope Aspect on Plant Community Composition and its Implications for Restoration of a Chinese Mountain Range

Qin¹,

Holden²,

Feng³

et al. 2017

Pol. J. Environ. Stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Excessive human disturbance (e.g., overgrazing, deforestation) has degraded the environment in the Qilian Mountains in China. Vegetative restoration is likely to be a crucial tool to restore these biologically significant habitats, but it is impossible to achieve this goal if the baseline plant community composition and its variation with local environmental conditions were not understood fully. To assess plant community composition by slope aspect, four different aspects -south-facing slope (SF), southwest-facing slope (SW), northwest-facing slope (NW), and north-facing slope (NF) -were surveyed on three almost non-degraded mountains. The results showed that each slope aspect has different abiotic environments. From SF to NF, soil water content has an increasing trend, but it shows no difference between SF and SW; and daily soil temperature and pH have a decreasing trend, while the former shows no difference between SF and SW, and SW and NW; and the latter shows no difference between SW and NW; and soil organic carbon was significantly increased, but soil bulk density was significantly decreased. Herbaceous plants were dominant on SF, SW, and NW, and trees (Picea crassifolia) were dominant on NF. From SF to NW, the dominant herbaceous plants were Agropyron cristatum and Stipa grandis, Agropyron cristatum and Carex aridula, and Kobresia humilis and Carex crebra, respectively, while on NF they were Carex spp. and Polygonum macrophyllum. The baseline survey points to the need to consider underlying patterns in abiotic conditions when planning restoration programs in these degraded mountain habitats, and to select native plants similar to the original vegetation. The survey provides a vital milestone for the development of policy-based funding initiatives and for ongoing vegetation monitoring during restoration to assess if these vegetative targets have been met.

show abstract

“…3.1 Changes in soil properties SOC, STN, and STP decreased as soil depth increased, similar to results obtained in previous research (Francaviglia et al 2014;Qin et al 2016); soil pH, however, showed an increasing trend with soil depth (Table 1). Although pH values declining with increasing soil depth have been reported in some studies outside the QTP region (Sonmez et al 2014), soil pH has also been shown to increase with soil depth in studies conducted elsewhere; for example, in the southeastern USA (Sigua and Coleman 2010) and in the central Qilian Mountains in the upper Heihe River Basin in China (Qin et al 2016). This indicates that the relationship between pH and soil depth is region-dependent, due to the different interactions among the specific regional climate, soil texture, and human activities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Multi-household grazing management pattern maintains better soil fertility

Cao

Deo

et al. 2018

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In addition to changes in land use and cover, changes in land management pattern can also have a significant effect on soil fertility. However, to date, changes in grassland grazing management pattern caused by policies have received less attention in terms of their impact on soil fertility. In this paper, we investigated the influence of two different grazing management patterns: the multi-household grazing management pattern (consisting of pastures managed by two or more households with no fences separating them) and the single-household grazing pattern (with fences between adjacent pastures managed by different households), which were implemented after the enactment of grassland contract policy, on soil fertility in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Our hypothesis was that soil fertility differed between the two grazing management patterns. We selected five study sites with both grazing management patterns in Maqu County on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and sampled 30 winter grasslands from each grazing management pattern to explore differences in soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, and soil total phosphorus. We showed that these indicators of fertility status were significantly greater under the multi-household grazing management pattern (47 g C kg −1 , 4.6 g N kg −1 , and 0.77 g P kg −1) compared to the single-household grazing management pattern (43 g C kg −1 , 4.3 g N kg −1 , and 0.73 g P kg −1). This is the first study of the effects of grazing management pattern on soil fertility in this environment, and it indicated that the multi-household grazing management pattern could maintain better soil fertility and help to support sustainable use of these grasslands.

show abstract

The Influence of Aspect on the Vegetation of Çataldağ

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Controlling factors of plant community composition with respect to the slope aspect gradient in the Qilian Mountains

Controlling factors of plant community composition with respect to the slope aspect gradient in the Qilian Mountains

Influence of Slope Aspect on Plant Community Composition and its Implications for Restoration of a Chinese Mountain Range

Multi-household grazing management pattern maintains better soil fertility

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About