Investigation of leaf area index, forest floor and some soil properties of beech, fir and fir-beech stands in the Arıt region

Leaf area index (LAI) control many ecophysiological processes such as photosynthesis, interception, evapotranspiration and deposition of atmospheric chemicals. The leaf area index is a particularly important ecosystem characteristic, because it is a direct measure of the photosynthetically-active surface area which can convert light energy into plant biomass. It should not be surprising that there is a strong relationship between leaf area index and productivity in many terrestrial ecosystems.In this study, leaf area index of the different stands (beech, fir, fir-beech) were investigated using the hemispherical photographs. Some soil properties (eg. texture, pH, organic C and total N) and weight of forest floor were also determined in these stands. For this purpose, soil samples and forest floor were collected at 15 random sites in each stand type located in the Buffer Zone of Küredağları National Park, Arıt. In addition, totally ninety (90) hemispherical photographs were taken using fisheye lens mounted camera from three stand type.The mean values for LAI were 3.36 m2 m-2, 2.94 m2 m-2, and 3.96 m2 m-2 in the beech, fir and fir-beech stands, respectively. Statistical analyses imply that there is a significant difference (P<0.05) among the leaf area indexes of the 3 stand types. We also found statistically significant differences (P<0.05) for the some soil properties, such as moisture, organic C, silt, particle density and Corg/Ntotal ratio, among the stand types.Based on our results, changes of stand type are likely to effects on leaf area index and teherby photosynthesis, interception, evaporation, and transpiration processes under the same ecological conditions. Our results also suggest that the leaf area index of different stand is mainly under control of tree-related factors, whereas the influence of soil properties is comparably low.