The relationships between environmental and disturbance factors in temperate deciduous forest ecosystem (Amasya/Turkey)

Abstract

Deciduous forests face many disturbance factors. Grazing and cutting are the leading factors in this disturbance. Thestudy area's vegetation was analyzed using numerical methods to identify plant communities and determine the relationshipbetween environmental gradients and disturbance factors. The species diversity was calculated using alpha and beta diversityindexes. As a result, four different communities were identified in the study area. One of the communities was under grazingpressure while the other community was under cutting pressure. No disturbance factors were found in the remaining twocommunities. Elevation and soil moisture were found to be important in the distribution of plant communities. pH, soil moisture,soil % N content and canopy factors were found to be important. The highest Shannon-Wienner diversity index values were found innon-cutting and non-grazing forest communities. The lowest Shannon-Wienner diversity index values were found in grazing andcutting forest communities. Unlike the Shannon-Wienner diversity index, the highest beta index values were found in grazingand cutting forest communities. The lowest beta index values were found in non-cutting and non-grazing forest communities.