Plant and Soil Characteristics of Rangelands Improved with Different Methods

Annual plant species and thorny shrubs like Christ’s thorn (Paliurus spina-cristi) are common inMediterranean rangelands because of climate and heavy grazing. Mediterranean rangelands (BigaÇanakkale/Turkey) with invasive Christ’s thorn (CT) populations improved with various practices throughremoving shrubs from the rangelands and seeding the places with forage crops. Improvement practices were asfollows; (C): Control treatment, (E): CT’s were removed 15 years ago, rangelands were seeded with forage crops;(H): CT’s shrubs were treated with herbicides; (M): CT’s shrubs were removed through grubbing with dozers andrippers; (F): The rangelands were used as agricultural field and reseeded to create a rangeland. All treatment plotswere seeded with perennial ryegrass, orchard grass and alfalfa. Effects of these improvement practices on soil andplant nutrients and some soil characteristics were investigated. Soil pH; decreased in herbicide-treated rangelands.The electrical conductivity of the soil did not change in the first year but changes have been occurred among theapplications in second year of the study work. The amount of soil nitrogen varied with the applications, while therewas no change in the amount of plant nitrogen. Treatments resulted in significant changes in soil and plant macro(K, Ca, Mg) and micro (Fe, Cu, Zn) nutrients and only the phosphorus (P) contents were not significant. Theapplied improvement methods in rangelands have brought certain changes the nutrients of soil and plant, but thesevariations did not mean to any negativity. It was concluded based on present findings that any methods used inthis study could be used to eleminate Christ’s thorn from the rangelands, but the method which is more economicaland sustainable for the relavent rangeland should be preferred in reclamation works.