Güvendı, Engın; Kahyaoğlu, Nuray

In order to meet the increase in demand for wood raw materials in Turkey, it has become imperative to focus on reforestation efforts. It is generally recommended to use consensual and rapidly developing species in afforestation studies. In this respect, our country's Maritime Pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) it appears to be a good species to be used in industrial afforestation. For this reason, it is important to start working from the places where productivity is highest in order to obtain the highest income at the end of the period by determining the most important growing environment factors and the degree of impact that affect the development and growth of Maritime Pine. Therefore, it is seen that studies investigating the characteristics of the growing environment in the Western Black Sea region where this species is best developed are insufficient. In this study, the relationships between the absolute depth, mechanical composition (texture), soil reaction, organic matter quantity, external soil condition and humus form of the soils in the Maritime Pine afforestation area spread within the boundaries of Sinop-Bektaşa Forest Management Directorate and productivity (site index) were determined. For this purpose, a total of 145 soil samples were taken from 35 sample areas from Maritime Pine stands within the borders of Sinop-Bektaşa Forest Management Directorate. Soil type, soil reaction, organic matter, water holding capacity (WHC) etc. on soil samples taken such features have been identified. In addition, 20-year-old upper height values were calculated for each sample area. The calculated site index is divided into 3 groups: good, medium, low. The relationships between the site index and some soil properties in each sample area were statistically determined. As a result; there was a determined positive correlation between site index and clay (%), silt (%), organic matter content (%) and water holding capacity (%) and negative correlation with sand amount (%).