Investigating the spatiotemporal changes of land use/land cover and its implications for ecosystem services between...

This study aims to determine the spatiotemporal changes of land use/land cover and ecosystem services in a 12,092.1 ha of Yuvacık planning unit (PU), by focusing on carbon storage, soil loss, water production, biodiversity, and forest fire vulnerability. Stand type maps and forest management plans designed in 1972, 2004, and 2015 were used to reveal the changes over 43 years. The results pointed out obvious changes in terms of the occurrence of private and cadastral forests as new types of land use, disappearance of coppice and pure oak stands, and the transformation of 99% of open lands into residential areas. Furthermore, degraded forests decreased considerably and mixed forests rose sharply by 117.2%. The outputs were highly related to the increase by 42% (5194.9 ha) of dense forest and shifting of 2548 ha from thinner development stage to mature stages during the period. With respect to ecosystem services, carbon storage in forest ecosystems went up by 19.3 Gg over 43 years. Moreover, soil loss declined significantly from 1.1 billion tons year^-1 to 108,549 tons year^-1, and water production decreased considerably from 1.8 billion to 2.7 million m³ year^-1. According to the Shannon evenness index, there was an increase by 0.3 and 0.2 successively. Biodiversity parameters such as tree density jumped from 18 to 46 ha^-1 in thicker development classes (more than 36 cm dbh) and positive developments in biodiversity chain noticed. Afterward, Yuvacık PU was classed in 2nd class of high wildfire vulnerability due to range of fire sensitivity index (5.22-6.88).