Murat YILMAZ, Yavuz OKUNUR KOCAMANOĞLU, Ayhan USTA, Esengül GENÇ

Impact of spatial factors on climate variables and species distribution in forest ecosystems under sea influence of Eastern Black Sea Region, NE Turkey

The distribution and characteristics of forest ecosystems are largely under the influence of climate. Climate directly affects the growth, leaf area and form, fenology and plant life, from seed to seedling formation. Climate varies from global scale to regional and local scales. Climate also has feedback mechanisms that can revert the changing vegetation back to its original state, through the changes it can create on vegetation. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationships between the distribution of tree species in the highland which is under the influence of the sea in Canik-Giresun Mountains, Trabzon Mountains and Rize-Kaçkar Mountains sites in the Eastern Black Sea Region, and spatial factors (altitude, distance from sea and latitude) and climate variables. The climate data, such as precipitation, temperature (average, minimum and maximum) and number of foggy days, of meteorological stations at different altitudes in coastal and mountainous areas under the influence of the sea were used in the study. 100 m increase in altitude led to a decrease in 26.9 mm precipitation in the Canik-Giresun Mountains, a decrease in 87.0 mm precipitation in the Rize-Kaçkar Mountains, and an average temperature decrease of 0.4oC in sites. The decrease in annual precipitations reaches 70 mm in Trabzon Mountains, 100 mm in Canik-Giresun Mountains and 290 mm in Rize-Kaçkar Mountains at a distance of 10 km away from the coast. Statistical increases were determined in the number of foggy days depending on the altitude and distance from the sea.In the research area, at 3rd altitude step where the distance from the sea and altitude are extreme, Scots pine, Oriental Spruce and Fir are spread in Canik-Giresun Mountains, Oriental Spruce and Scots pine are spread in Trabzon Mountains, and Oriental Spruce, Oriental Beech and Fir are spread in Rize-Kaçkar Mountains. Despite the decreasing amount of precipitation along with the increase in altitude and distance from the sea, the fog cloud in high mountainous areas plays an important ecological role in the conservation and distribution of these species.

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