The effects of afforestation on the functional diversity of the plants in the steppes of Central Anatolia, Türkiye

Date

2025-8-22

Author

Akçakoca, Selen

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

5449
views

0
downloads

Cite This

To mitigate the negative effects of erosion and climate change, afforestation works have been carried out in the arid and semi-arid lands of the world. Yet there is no information about the effect of widespread afforestation activities on the functional diversity of plants of the natural vegetation. To compare afforested and adjacent non-forest sites in Konya Closed Basin in terms of plant functional diversity, a total of 77 plots were sampled from young (0-10 years), intermediate (11-25 years), and old (26-50 years) age groups of afforestation and control sites. A total of 432 plant species were identified. Plant height and several explanatory variables were measured per species per plot in the field. A total of 2023 leaf samples were collected from the field, and leaf traits were measured to calculate leaf thickness, specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf dry matter content (LDMC). In addition, growth form, life span, pubescence, spine presence and dispersal mode data were extracted from the literature to calculate plot-wise functional diversity metrics, i.e. richness, evenness, dispersion, divergence, and Rao’Q. GLMM analyses were performed to understand the effects of afforestation and environmental variables on leaf traits and functional diversity. Functional richness and LDMC increased in afforested areas, but the interaction of grazing and afforestation differently affected leaf traits and functional diversity metrics. Grazing increased leaf thickness and LDMC, while decreased SLA and plant height. It is recommended that grazing management should be taken into consideration for effective conservation of functional diversity before afforestation efforts. In addition, afforestation projects should avoid complete canopy closure and dense plantations to conserve understory vegetation.

Subject Keywords

Leaf traits, Grazing, Grasslands, Specific Leaf Area, Leaf Dry Matter Content

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115644

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis