Impacts of climate change on annual diameter increment of natural Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) forests in Kahramanmaras

Abstract

The effects of global warming on climate change have been recognized in global scale and it is expected that these effects will become even more obvious in near future. The climate change, especially in arid, semi-arid, and semi-humid regions, may result in detrimental effects on forests and water resources. Turkey is among the most affected countries from climate change due to located in Mediterranean region. With the global climate change, dams and ponds also influence on tree growth. This study was carried out in Menzelet watershed dam located in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Menzelet dam was established during 1980-1989 and water deposition started in 1990. The climate of research area is semi-arid and characterized by extreme summer drought. The purpose of this study was to investigate the local climate effects on diameter increments resulted by Menzelet Dam Lake on the naturally distributed Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) forests. Therefore, sampling areas were chosen from two different places namely as dam site and control site. Sample plots in dam site and control site were selected from the same stand structure and have the same properties such as site index, altitude, age distribution classes and aspect. Increment cores were taken from 20 Pinus brutia trees using increment borer at breast height (1.30 m) in each sample plots and two increment cores were taken from each tree. WinDENDRO software package was used on the measurement and determination of annual diameter increment. Annual diameter increment of trees in dam site and control site were compared with independent t test using SPSS 20.0 statistical program. The relationships between annual diameter increment and climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation were evaluated using Pearson correlation analysis. According to results, there is a statistically significant difference between average annual diameter increment in dam site and control site and dam influenced forest areas positively with respect to annual diameter increment. The values of the mean annual diameter increment of the trees in dam site are greatly higher than trees in control site. According to correlation analysis, temperature increase negatively affects annual diameter increment in control site. Important increase or decrease of annual total rainfall cause more significant changes in annual diameter increment in control site compare to dam site.

Keywords

• yıllık çap artımı
• kızılçam
• i̇klim değişikliği
• menzelet barajı
• annual diameter increment
• calabrian pine
• climate change
• menzelet dam