FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, cilt.23, sa.8, ss.1840-1851, 2014 (SCI-Expanded)
The subject of this study is to research the wood properties of black alder, which is widely spread at East Black Sea Region of Turkey and being used in forest product industry, under different site conditions. For this purpose, 25 sample areas have been considered among Artvin-Arhavi, Trabzon-Akcaabat and Giresun-Espiye regions. At each sample area, one tree with dominant height has been cut down. Suitable materials have been obtained from such trees in order to determine the anatomic, physical and mechanical properties of wood. Properties of alder wood, such as width of annual ring, oven-dry wood density, bending strength, modulus of elasticity, dynamic bending and compressive strength parallel to grain have been determined. Site indices of sample areas have been determined by using the age-height relation of standard age trees. Soil samples have been taken at soil profiles opened at sample areas from depths of 0-10 cm, 10-30 cm, 30-50 cm, 50-80 cm and 80-120 cm. Sand, dust, clay, available water capacity, soil organic matter and soil reaction (pH) have been determined in soil samples. Whether the wood properties differentiate as per different sites has been revealed by the variance analysis, and how they change as per significant environmental conditions, such as altitude and precipitation at the same site, has been revealed by the correlation analysis. As e result of statistical analysis, it has been determined that all the wood properties differentiate as per sites, and wood properties at different sites are related with the site factors. The relation of oven-dry wood density and width of annual ring, which affects the usage area, and technological specification of wood, with environmental factors such as altitude and precipitation, is very considerable.