Some Properties of Rangelands in Bartın Province

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine some vegetation characters of 15 village rangelands in Bartın province in 2016. In the study, modified wheel point method with loop was used. Totally 128 plant species were determined in studied rangelands. This plant species were also divided into 3 different successional groups: i) 18 species were decreases, ii) 10 species were increasers, 100 species were invaders (89 species were herbaceous and 11 species were shrubs-trees). In the experiment rangelands, plant coverage rate was 93.57%. Considering the different successional groups, which had influential effect to pasture quality, decreasers, increasers, and invaders had 15.52%, 15.59% and 68.89%, respectively. The results from the present study indicated that 1, 1, 6 and 7 rangelands are “Very good”, Good”, “Fair” and “Poor” conditions based on the rangeland condition classes, respectively. On the other hand, 14 and 1 rangelands were found as “Healthy” and “Unhealthy” in health categories. There were significant correlations between plant cover and soil depth (r=0.553*) and grazing level and soil compaction (r=0.587*) in studied rangelands. According to these results half of the rangelands must be used carefully, while other half are need improving immediately.

Keywords

• Rangeland condition
• rangeland health
• grazing level
• soil compaction
• invader species