Journal of Environmental Biology

Effect of environmental factors on the productivity of crimean pine

(Pinus nigra ssp. pallasiana) in Sutculer, Turkey

 

Kursad Ozkan* and Serkan Gulsoy²

¹Department of Soil Science and Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, ²Suleyman Demirel University,? 32260, Isparta, Turkey

(Received: June 20, 2008; Revised received: November 11, 2008; Accepted: November 21, 2008)

 

Abstract: This study was conducted on Pinus nigra sub sp. pallasiana commonly known as crimean pine. The purpose of this study was to determine the important site factors affecting the development of these forests in Sutculer district. This district experiences a transitional climate between Mediterranean and Continental regions. There is a strong water deficit in summer. The data was collected from 37 sample plots. It was analyzed statistically by using upper stand height as a dependent variable and some site characteristics as independent variables. The results revealed that there was only one important negative linear relationship between upper stand height and Ah organic matter. This result was uncommon. The reasons for this depend indirectly other site factors (aspect, slope position, altitude, slope degree and humus forms). This result was explained at 69.53% of total variance using these site factors by means of factor analysis (FA). After FA, these site factors were transferred to stepwise disciriminant analysis (SDA) to determine eigenvalue ratios of the bonitet models. As a result of SDA, three bonitets and five variables (3B5V) were found as the best model with 71.5 % of variance and 0.007 % significance level.

Key words: Crimean pine, Environmental factors, Height growth, Productivity, Simple regression analysis

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