Effect of modifying land cover and long-term agricultural practices on the soil characteristics in native forest-land

Natural forestland soils in the high land mountain ecosystems on the eastern Black sea region of Turkey are being seriously degraded and destructed due to intensive agricultural practices. In this study, we examined four soil profiles selected from four sites in each of three adjacent land use types which are native forest, pasture and cultivated fields with corn and hazelnut to compare the soil physical, chemical and morphological properties modified after natural forestland transformation into cultivated land. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from four sites. The effects of agricultural practices on soil properties taken from each three adjacent land use types were most clearly detected in the past 50 years with the land use change. Land use change and subsequent tillage practices resulted in significant decreases in organic matter, total porosity, total nitrogen and reduced soil aggregates stability. However, contents of available P were improved by application of phosphorous fertilizers in cultivated system. There was also a significant change in bulk density among cultivated, pasture and natural forest soils. Depending upon the increase in bulk density and disruption of pores by cultivation, total porosity decreased accordingly. The data show that long term continuous cultivation of the natural forest soils resulted in changes in physical and chemical characteristics of soils.