Effects of aspect and changes in land use on organic carbon and soil properties in Uludere catchment, semi-arid region: Turkey

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of topographic aspect and changes in land use type and land cover (LUTLC) on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil properties in Uludere catchment. Therefore, adjacent three land use types were chosen, including natural forest, grassland and cultivated area, to determine the effects of changes of LUTLC on SOC and soil properties in the upper soil layer (0–20 cm). The results showed that significant differences between types of land use in terms of bulk density (BD), soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), and SOC. Soils from the grassland had the second highest levels of SOM and SOC. However, soils from the cultivated area had a very low amount of SOM, SOC and TN. It seems that agricultural practices have an extractive effect on soil properties and SOC accumulation. The soils of forest had the lowest BD values, whereas the soils of cultivated areas had the highest BD at both aspects. BD of the grassland was significantly higher than that of forest but lower than that of cultivated areas. The most appropriate land cover type to protect the soil qualities and to combat desertification in semi-arid region is natural vegetation.