A Research on determination of soil physical and hydroilic properties in Akdeniz Agriculturel Research Intitute

In this study, it was aimed to determine the physical and hydraulic properties of soils of Institute of Akdeniz Agricultural Research and to prepare the basic data for the future researchers who study on the soils of the Institute. The research area is located on the Antalya-Alanya highway. It is surrounded by Aksu river in the south and east and by Teh- nelli creek in the west. The area consist of about 1850 dekars of land. The soil of Antalya region have been formed in the Quater- nery time and classified as alluvial soils which were azonal soil order according to the soil genesis. Yearly averege temperature, rainfall, and transpiration in the region are 18.4 °C, 1068.2 mm, and 1445.8 mm, respectively. To achive the purpose, soil profiles were dug out in five different points considering the Detailed Soil Map of Aksu Plain prepared by D.S.I. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples from the profiles were taken and analyzed in the laboratory. After the study, the fallowing conclusion were drown; The amount of clay, silt and sand are between 22.84-46.48 %, 27.98-50.28 % and 13.52-35-52 %, respectively. The texture of the soils can be classified as fine and medium fine according to the soil triangle. Particle densities of the soils differs from 2.51 to 2.74 while bulk densities are between 1.23-1.69 gr/cm3. The porosity of the soils were calculated from the rela tionship between particle density and bulk density and ranged from 36.70 to 51.00 %. The soil pores were classified as coarse, medium and fine. The percentage distributions of pore in total pore space are 2.70- 20.23 % for coarse, 8.82-17.09 % for medium and 14.49-26.78 % for fine. The amount of organic matter of the soils vary from 0.768 to 2.470 %. The 58.8 percent of organic matter in the soil is low, 41.20 % of that is moderate. The values of electrical coductivity of the soil samples range from 111.8 to 829.6 micromhos/cm which indicate that the total salts percent of the samples are between 0.00 and 0.15. The salt content of the soil is low. The pH values changes from 7.37 to 8.05. When the soils classified according to their pH values, 35 % of the soil samples are low alkali, 65 % of that are moderately alkali. Steady infiltration rates differ from 0.6 cm/hour to 2.45 cm/hour which are moderately low. The amount of the water hold by different suctions in the soil is related to the texture of the soil. There are positive correlation between field capacity and clay content and between wilting point and clay content. There are negative correlation between field capacity and sand content and between wilting point and sand content. 1 Hydraulic conductivity of the soils changes from 0.62 cm/hour to 4.25 cm/hour. When the soils classified according to their hydraulic conductivity values, 65 percent of the soil samples are moderately low and 35 percent of that are moderate.