Title: Spatially explicit estimates and temporal changes of forest tree biomass in a typical department of forest management, Turkey

Authors: Sedat Keleş; İdris Durusoy

Addresses: Faculty of Forestry, Çankırı Karatekin University, 18200, Çankırı, Turkey ' Faculty of Forestry, Düzce University, 81620, Düzce, Turkey

Abstract: This study presents temporal changes in forest timber biomass of a department of forest management consisting of four forest management units in Turkey. Changes in forest tree biomass are linked to forest cover change during 1986-2011 period based on forest inventory data. We also produced forest biomass density maps using Geographical Information Systems. The results showed a net increase of 1,755 ha in forested areas of the Department of Gölyaka Forest Management. Depending on the increase of forested area (1,755 ha and the annual forestation rate was 0.44% per year) and growing stock volumes (27% increase), total forest tree biomass also increased by 27.6% in this period. The observed trends of the increasing forest tree biomass in the study area could be explained by the increasing forested area, the decreasing settlement and agricultural lands, the forestation on forest openings, the rehabilitation of degraded forests and the conversion of coppice forest to high forests with greater growing stock increments.

Keywords: forest timber biomass; biomass expansion factor; climate change; forest management plan; geographical information systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2017.084014

International Journal of Global Warming, 2017 Vol.12 No.1, pp.50 - 65

Received: 04 Dec 2014
Accepted: 26 May 2015
Published online: 03 May 2017 *

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