Ferhat Gökbulak's research while affiliated with İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa and other places

... In comparison with this study, soil erosion rates were assessed in several countries in the North Africa and Mediterranean region, such as Morocco (Benmansour et al., 2013), Algeria (Azbouche et al., 2017), Tunisia (Oueslati et al., 2019), Italy (Porto et al., 2001;Porto and Walling, 2012), Spain (Gaspar et al., 2013;Navas et al., 2005) and Turkey (Haciyakupoglu et al., 2005;Kiziltaş et al., 2009) using the 137 Cs technique. Based on the data reported in these studies, soil erosion rates associated with the investigated fields were found in the range of 0.8-29.0 ...

... The identified Hotspots and their Conservation Gaps are clearly in the mountains with high elevational amplitude (Figure 3a) and establishment of protected areasin these mountains not only will conserve a high number of endemic species but also will buffer the impact of the ongoing climate change on these species. The overall livestock populations in this region are in general very large and several times more than the sustainable carrying capacity of the pastures(Amiraslani & Dragovich, 2011;Gökbulak et al., 2018;Koç et al., 2014). High elevations are, however, more under pressure, as during the very dry summer months in lowlands herds and livestock are concentrated at higher elevations F I G U R E 2 Hotspots of the study area inferred using six diversity indices: (a) SR, species richness, (b) ER, endemic richness, (c) RER, range-restricted endemic richness, (d) RRR, range-rarity richness, (e) SPD, species phylogenetic diversity, and (f) EPD, endemic phylogenetic diversity. ...

... The effect of thinning the forest cover on soil erosion and water pollution must be cautiously considered. Erdogan et al. (2018) reported based on experiment in Belgard Forest in Istanbul, Turkey whose dominant vegetation cover was mainly composed of Quercus sp, that 18% forest thinning caused to increase 7.3µScm -1 of electric conductivity, 2.8 NTU in turbidity, 15.1mgL -1 in suspended sediment concentration compared with the control. ...

... However, the changes we documented were less than described in Hornbeck et al. [22] and Bosch and Hewlett [5], but larger than those reported for Mediterranean forests. Some studies even suggest that to have noticeable increases in water yield, vegetation cover must be reduced by 20% [5,[36][37][38]. This is because the loss of tree cover produces more surface runoff and eventually increases the risk of soil erosion [37,38]. ...

... These studies found that water yield generally increases after intensive timber har- vest, such as clearcutting. On the other hand, increases in the water yield after timber removal can deteriorate water quality ( Gökbulak et al., 2017;NRC, 2008). Although Neary (2016) mentioned that many paired watershed research projects were expanded to investigate the effects of forestry activities on the chemical water quality parameters and nutrient cycling, as in Hornbeck et al. (1997), Bäumler and Zech (1999), Grace III et al. (2006), andSerengil et al. (2007a), studies that examined the effects of timber harvest on physical water quality parameters including pH, electrical conductivity, color, and turbidity have been limited compared to the studies of stream chemistry and water yield. ...

... Although several studies were carried out about the effect of timber removal on the nutrient outflow from forested watersheds, less information is available about the magnitude of the total nutrient fluxes caused by timber harvesting (thinning) in the oak-beech natural forest ecosystems in the region and across the world. Several studies also highlighted detecting or monitoring nutrient output in stream water (Bäumler & Zech, 1999;Fukushima et al., 2015;Hughes & Quinn, 2019;Yurtseven et al., 2017), but it is important to determine the nutrient output in the sediment as well as in the stream water together to find out the entire nutrient output in a watershed. Vegetation removal can lead to excessive nutrient outflow in the forested watersheds and finally lower forest productivity. ...

... Bosch and Hewlett [5], found that a 10% change in BA would cause a reduction of 40, 25, and 10 mm in water yield in eucalyptus, deciduous, and scrubland forests respectively. Contrarywise, Mediterranean forests with 18% removal did not show increase in water yield during the first and second year after cutting [31]. Cruz-Garcia, et al., found that the minimum SR values were observed in forests with a basal area higher than 20 m 2 ha -1 [23]. ...

... Insecticides given to the trees are inevitably poured into the soil and it leads negative effects. Unfortunately, this process affects the seeds and the quality of soil terrifically and the rain and ground water are transported from the soil to the lakes and sea [6]. Then, the consumption of this water affects people, animals and plants as a matter of course [3,7]. ...

... Many researchers have proven the ability of neural networks to model and forecast natural time series. Furthermore, in several studies, artificial neural networks have been used to predict seasonal, monthly, and daily rainfall (Kuligowski and Barros 1998;Abrahart and See 2000;Luk et al. 2000;Luk et al. 2000;Valverde Ramírez et al. 2005;Sedki et al. 2009;Abudu et al. 2010;Wu and Chau 2013;Nastos et al. 2013;Gökbulak et al. 2015;Moazami et al. 2016;Nourani 2017;Qiu et al. 2017;Danladi et al. 2018;Le et al. 2020;Ashrafi et al. 2020;Mostaghimzadeh et al. 2021;Mostaghimzadeh et al. 2022). ...

... Environmental factors such as microclimate, microtopography, and soil temperature and moisture are drivers of microbial community change and have a large impact on altering surface apoplastic decomposition and soil nutrient cycling [108,109]. The process of litter decomposition releases elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) [110]; lignin, cellulose [111], phenolic compounds [112], etc.; and different metal elements such as Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ , Ca 2+ , K + , Na + , Mg 2+ , etc. [113][114][115], which accelerate the decomposition of litter and fibrous roots by forest gaps [116]. Forest gaps accelerate cellulose and lignin degradation during log decomposition by increasing cellulose mass loss and slowing lignin enrichment [117]. ...