The Use of Indicator Species and Ecological Degradation Model for Condition Assessment in Turkey

Authors : Sabahaddin Ünal, Bilal Şahin, Öztekin Urla, Berna Efe

Pages : 190-202

Doi:10.21566/tarbitderg.366390

View : 32 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2017-12-29

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Monitoring of vegetation change is essential to detect good management practices for the sustainable use of natural rangeland resources. An understanding of how the existing species in vegetation react to management methods is important for decision makers. For this reason, the vegetation changes should be determined by suitable techniques. The multivariate analysis as Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Principal Components Analysis was highly examined and its results were easily interpreted to draw conclusions. A relatively homogenous data set first, a matrix of 221 species and 44 sample sites in the province of Yozgat in the Central Anatolia Region in year 2010, was used by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). The effects of environmental variation was minimized by this method (DCA) so that the major pattern of vegetation composition change was explained by grazing impact. Principal components analysis was performed to detect the distribution of sites along the first axis, and the distance off the x-axis. Fifteen species out of the promising 89 plant species were found to be indicators. These indicator species should be benefited for the vegetation change status and sustainable rangeland management under semiarid rangeland conditions. The fifteen plant species and bare ground showed clear responses along the first axis (grazing impact gradient), and became abundant over certain ranges of this axis.
Keywords : Monitoring, grazing impact, ecological model