Investigating the effects of forest road construction on diameter increase of scotch pine: Case study in forest sub-district directorate of madenler, Artvin

In this study, it was conducted to determine the changes of diameter increment of trees in the upper and bottom sections of road routes after planning and implementation stages of the forest road constructions. To investigate whether the effects on the development of tree diameters on road construction, three scots pine stands were selected (each of them 15 m wide) in the compartment of 69 and 103 located within the boundaries of Forest Sub-District Directorate of Madenler under the Regional Forest Directorate of Artvin. One of the zones is located in the upper part of the road while the other two are situated in bottom part of the road. A total of 300 tree measurements were made, of which 200 of them were within the 0-15 m zone in both the upper and the lower sections of the road routes whereas 100 of them were selected below the forest road in the zone of 15-30 m. For each tree, diameter at breast height and distance from the road were measured. Also, annual ring thicknesses were measured in both directions for 20 year period based on the age of tree and they were compared between before and after road construction periods. Paired sample t-test was used to determine if there is any impact on the development of the diameter during the forest road construction and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate whether there were any differences between increments among three zones located in the upper and bottom of the road. As a result, when we look at the diameter increment after road construction, it was found that there was a decrease of % 27, %32 and % 17 for each of the three zones, respectively. In conclusion, it can be stated that road construction have negative impacts on the diameter increment of trees found along the road routes. Keywords: Diameter increment, Growth, Scotch pine, Forest Roads.