Investigating changes on vegetation and some soil properties with altitude in high pasturelands near Aydin Village in Ardanuç, Artvin

The main goal of this study was to investigate how the vegetation and some soil properties change with the altitudes in high pasturelands near Aydın Village in Ardanuç, Artvin.For this purpose, total of 36 sampling cages -made with wire fence and 1 m2 in size- were put evenly on three different altitudes chosen at 1900, 2000 and 2200 meters using randomized block design. Vegetation samples taken from these cages were first identified and classified into botanical composition and then their fresh and dry forage yield were estimated along with their grazing capacity. The results showed that the mean fresh forage yield was 647.22 kg/da while the mean dry forage yield was 196.67 kg/da. Botanical composition was estimated to be made off with %46.16 poaceae (gramineae), %14.36 leguminosae (fabaceae) and %39.45 other families.In addition, 12 undisturbed (with a 10 cm diameter ring) and 12 mixed soil samples, totaling 72 soil samples, were taken from 0-20 cm depth from all the cages at each altitude. These samples were analyzed for permeability, bulk density, content of fine particles and soil skeleton, root amount, texture, particle density, porosity, organic matter and soil pH.After running variance analysis on these soil test results, it showed that the soils of the study area had the following means: permeability of 171.85 mm/sa, bulk density of 0.83 gr/cm3, sand amount of % 86.60, clay amount of % 2.62, silt amount of % 10.78, particle density of 2.10 gr/cm3, porosity of % 60.06, organic matter of % 5.01 and soil pH of 5.72.