Omer Kucuk

• Professor, PhD, Forest Engineering
• Professor at Kastamonu University

Every year, more than ten thousand hectares of forest in Türkiye are affected by fires. The majority of forest fires occurs in the southern part of Türkiye, where conifer forests and maquis prone to fire are abundant. Forest fires can lead to the loss of human lives, properties and natural resources. Knowledge of Forest Fire Danger Potential (FFDP)...

Climate anomalies and potential increased human pressure will likely cause the increase in frequency and damage of forest fires in the near future. Therefore, accurately and temporally estimating and mapping forest fire probability is necessary for preventing from destructive effects of forest fires. In this study, the forest fire occurrence in Sou...

Z Orman yangınlarının birçok çalışmada olumsuz etki gösterdiği ifade edilse de kontrollü yakma uygulamalarının hem yangınlarla mücadelede hem de ekolojik bir araç olarak kullanıldığını ifade eden birçok çalışma mevcuttur. Özellikle ayrışmanın yavaş olduğu ekosistemlerde, örtü yangını uygulamaları yapılarak bu konunun olumlu tarafları olduğu gösteri...

Aim of study: Climate change triggers many problems, such as loss of biodiversity on land and sea, destruction of forest areas, poverty, inequality, and economic development. One of the most vital indicators of quality of life and sustainable development is temperature, humidity, and wind conditions, which are in the range of bio-climatic comfort v...

Climate change, triggered by the direct and indirect effects of urbanization, seriously threatens the ecosystem, earth cycles, and vitality. It is quite complex to investigate the reasons for the devastating effect of extreme events that occur with the impact of climate change. However, future projections based on probabilities are needed for gover...

Background Forest fires are one of the most important natural disasters all over the world in terms of the damage they cause to the ecosystem. Turkey is also exposed to wildfires damaging large areas of forests every year. Wildfires endanger the sustainability of forest resources and cause significant biological and ecological damage to the forests...

Modeling forest fire behavior is very important for the effective control of forest fires and the setting up of necessary precautions before fires start. However, studies of forest fire behavior are complex studies that depend on many variables and usually involve large data sets. For this reason, the predictive power and speed of classical forecas...

The effect of COVID-19 vaccination also depends on the population that accepts vaccines. Improving the COVID-19 vaccination methods will be tremendous to human health and the world economy. So, in this work, we use an interdisciplinary knowledge from climates, social sciences, geography, jungle, forestry and wood industry, genetic analysis, and com...

Successful management of young, fire-prone Calabrian pine forests requires an accurate characterization of surface and canopy fuel loads at stand level. This study characterizes the surface and canopy fuel characteristics in unthinned Calabrian pine plantations in Turkey. Fifteen sample plots were measured to determine the surface and crown fuel ch...

Seaweed has been considered a treatment with the possibility of saving the environment in Anzali Lagoon in Iran due to its eco-potential, accessibility, and anti-toxic metal ion. Mostly, transition metals are toxic to human organs. Due to these problems and concerns, this study exhibits suitable adsorption materials for several native materials. Us...

The year 2021 is important in terms of forest fire history in our country. Because during the end of July to mid-August, when the weather conditions were unusual, fires that could be classified as “mega fires” took place. These fires are very fast-spreading, high-intensity and destructive fires. In cases where the moisture content of fine dead comb...

This study proposed an integrated approach to generating a forest fire risk map. It used geographic information system–based multiple criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and a statistical index (SI). The research was carried out at the Mersin Regional Directorate of Forestry (RDF) in the eastern Mediterra...

Understanding the fire-prone arid-zone pine species and maquis vegetation's response to fire is very important to reveal the ecology and evolution of these species. During the succession of vegetation, there are complex relationships between allelopathic metabolites and fires. Many plant communities such as pines, maquis, savannas and woodlands are...

Canopy fuel characteristics play an important role in crown fire behaviour in conifer forests. In this study, the canopy fuel characteristics of Calabrian pine, Anatolian Black pine and Maritime pine stands in Turkey are estimated using forest stand parameters. Sets of equations are fitted to the measured data revealing correlations between canopy...

Possible causes of a forest fire ignition could be human-caused (arson, smoking, hunting, picnic fire, shepherd fire, stubble burning) or natural-caused (lightning strikes, power lines). Temperature, relative humidity, tree species, distance from road, wind speed, distance from agricultural land, amount of burnt area, month and distance from settle...

Kastamonu University Journal of Forestry Faculty

Aim of study: Pinus brutia is the most widespread conifer forest tree species in Turkey. It is mainly distributed in fire sensitive regions of the country. The economic importance in wood production and the deterministic role in forest fires fighting activities make this forest tree more valuable and important. This study describes crown fuel load...

Evaluating the relationships between wildlife species and their habitats helps to predict effects of habitat change for present and future management of wild animal populations. Building ecological models are good ways to understand and manage wildlife populations and to predict various environmental scenarios. Recently, management of ungulates is...

This study presents a dynamic model for the prediction of diurnal changes in the moisture content of dead surface fuels in normally stocked Calabrian pine stands under varying weather conditions. The model was developed based on several empirical relationships between moisture contents of dead surface fuels and weather variables, and calibrated usi...

Aim of study: Forest fuels are very critical for fire behavior models and hazard maps. Relationship among wind speed, fuel moisture content, slope, and fuel type directs us to predict fire behavior of a given region. For this study, we evaluated fire behavior parameters such as fireline intensity and rate of fire spread using the fuel moisture cont...

Aim of the study: To develop regression models for estimating the rate of surface fire spread in a thinned even-aged black pine stand (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder). Area of the study: The study was carried out within a thinned black pine forest located in the Kastamonu Forest District, northwestern Turkey....

Introduction: Forest fires are an important ecological factor affecting on vegetation dynamics. Forest fires generally initiate as surface fire and turn into crown fires under suitable fuel and weather conditions. In transition from surface fire to crown fire, crown base height (CBH) which is defined as vertical distance from ground surface to live...

Many plant species demonstrate various adaptations at the point of survival or selfrenewal after the fire. These adaptations, shown by plants, are evidence that the adaptive properties found in the structures vary with the end of the fire. The most common adaptations are; (1) fireinduced seed germination, (2) resprouting, (3) seed bank, and (4) bar...

Forest fires vary in terms of species, composition and age classes in many types of vegetation. There is a close relationship between the type of fire and destructive effect of fire intensity on vegetation. In Turkey, studies on post-fire vegetation development is limited and no articles related post-fire vegetation development in black pine stands...

Identifying the daily activities and habitat use of wild animals is one of the fundamental elements of wildlife management and monitoring studies. Identifying wildlife-habitat relationships also helps to anticipate habitat changes and management impacts that may occur in wildlife populations. In order to determine why wild animals prefer certain ha...

Human–wildlife conflict is defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as "any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations, or on the environment”. One of the subject of human- wildlife conflict which occurring often in Kastamonu...

Small trees and saplings are important for forest management, carbon stock estimation, ecological modeling, and fire management planning. Turkish pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) is a common coniferous species and comprises 25.1% of total forest area of Turkey. Turkish pine is also important due to its flammable fuel characteristics. In this study, compati...

It is crucially important to monitor and conserve the populations of wild animals, for assessing the successful management of wildlife. Monitoring dynamics of wildlife helps to understand ecological processes better. Estimating the population size and density of animals is also fundamental to understand the status, distribution and encounter rate o...

Turkey has an important potential for biodiversity because of its geographical position. Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) Is one of the important tree species of our country benefiting from the production of firewood and firewood, as well as its fruit and honey production. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the health conditions of chestnut...

It is significantly important to include a human dimension to wildlife management. Human-wildlife conflict existed since humans and wild animals have shared the same resources and areas. Human–wildlife conflict is defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as "any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on huma...

In this study, bird species inhabiting within Il-gaz Mountain National Park (IMNP) were identified. At 3 different habitat features, the frequency, similarity and dominance analyses of bird species were carried out, and their diversity indexes were determined. We identified 10 Order, 27 families and 54 bird species. According to each family, 35 Pas...

Natural resources are depleting due to detrimental effects of human interventations. The preservation and rehablitation of these areas are critical. It is very important to identify existing floristic and faunistic elements of these sites for management and future studies. The main purpose of these strategies is to protect and develop the target sp...

Natural Wildlife Development Area is a protection status declared in accordance with the Land Hunting Act No. 4915. Within this scope, there are 80 Wildlife Development Areas in our country. The aim of this study was to observe possible threats in the Elekdag wildlife development area and to suggest solutionsfor the area. Elekdag Wildlife Developme...

For a successful fire suppression, it is essential to detect and intervene forest fires as early as possible. Fire lookout towers are crucial assets in detecting forest fires, in addition to other technological advancements. In this study, we performed a visibility analysis on a network of fire lookout towers currently operating in a relatively fir...

Knowing the biology of wild animals is not sufficient, it is also necessary to know habitat relationships for conserving species and sustainability. Wild boars (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) are one of the important species for game and hunting management. This species is widely distributed in Kastamonu. Wild boars are feding many kind of forest fruit...

Forest fires are one of the key factors that play a significant role influencing and shaping the forest ecosystems. In a natural ecosystem where the fire took place, it is known that many plant species demonstrate various adaptations at the point of survival or self-renewal after the fire. A number of hypotheses put forward that a direct impact...

Türkiye flora ve fauna bakımından zengin ülkelerden birisidir. Türkiye ormanları, biyolojik çeşitlilik açısından önemli bir potansiyele sahiptir. Ülkemizdeki ormanlar, çok çeşitli hayvan gruplarının barındığı önemli birer yaban hayatı sahasıdır. Biyoçeşitliliğin unsurlarından biri olan yaban hayvanlarının önemli bir bölümünü oluşturan Memeli (Mamma...

Ülkemiz, doğal alanları, ormanları ve yaban hayatı türlerinden bakımından zengin olan nadir ülkelerden biridir. Ulusal veya yöresel ölçekte tehdit veya tehlike altında olan nadir ve endemik türlerin veyahut kültürel-ekonomik değeri olan türlerin yaşadıkları alanların korunması ve geliştirilmesini sağlamak yaban hayatı yönetimi çalışmalarının temeli...

Determining the habitat preferences of wild animals and conserving their habitats are constitute the basis of wildlife protection. Therefore, researches and studies of wildlife habitat preference and the protection of these areas are important. This study was held in Kastamonu Elekdağı Wildlife Development Area, one of the roe deer’s important h...

Increased fire activity, related both to human activities and to climate change, necessitates effective fire prevention and suppression strategies. The main purpose of this paper is to model and map fire suppression difficulty using common approaches in three different ecosystems in Eastern Europe by employing very high-resolution satellite imagery...

Turkey contains a diverse species of wild animals. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an ungulate that can cause a variety of damage to agricultural and forest areas. Wild boar is distributed in many places in Turkey. They can damage crops, as well as habitat for plants and animals. The most common complaints are rooting or grubbing, that can cause to destr...

Field studies was carried out at various dates since September 2014 to investigate the causes of decline of Scots pine (Pinus slyvestris L.) in Kastamonu Kadıdağı recreation site that occurred in 2013 and 2014. In field examinations, crown declining, weak canopy, resin flows on trunks on old trees and yellow discoloration of needles on young Scots...

Diets of wild animals are useful tools for researching and understanding their ecology, behaviour and the management of wildlife. Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is an important species that can influence vegetation of forest and is the smallest species of Cervidae family that exist on Turkey. In this study diet of roe deer (C. capreolus) distribute...

Studies on the abundance of wildlife are important for assessing the status of wild animals’ population and their environment. Identifying animal species, distribution of animals, presence - absence and their behavior are key factors to manage wildlife. Data of wildlife can be obtained from invasive and non-invasive methods. Camera trapping is an e...

Description of fuel characteristics is an essential input to fire behavior models that can provide decision-support for fire management. Fuel models describe fuel characteristics for fire modeling systems based on Rothermel's fire spread model. In this study, fire behavior data collected in field experiments in different fuel complexes in Turkey is...

Assessing Fuel Load and Fireline Intensity in Bayam Forest District, TURKEY Using Flam Map Software and Remote Sensing Techniques Assessing the amount of available fuels and fuel types is very critical for modeling fire behavior along with calculating fireline intensity and fire risk maps. Relationship among fuel type, fuel moisture, wind speed an...

Fuel moisture is an important variable for forest fires because it affects fuel ignition and fire behavior. In order to predict fuel ignition potential, fire spread, fireline intensity and fuel consumption accurately, fuel moisture content must be assessed. Several methods are available for measuring the dead fuel moisture content. However, some me...

Wildfire is an integral process in various ecosystems and has been a phenomenon throughout the world. Forest fires have many advantages and disadvantages to forest ecosystems. One of the main concerns of forest management is conserving of the forest resources and natural habitat against forest fires. Wildlife is one of the important factor in fores...

Forest fire is one of the most important factors affecting quality and quantity of wildlife faunae and their habitats: Besides deadly impact of forest fires on mammals and other animal species, it has a vital role in altering forest under storey, forest structure, species composition, soil characteristics and microclimate of burnt areas. In general...

Fighting forest fires not only depends on the forest type, topography, and weather conditions, but is also closely related to the technical properties of fire-fighting equipment. Firefighting is an important part of fire management planning. However, because of the complex nature of forests, creating thematic layers to generate potential fire risk...

Crown structure and fuel loading are important factors affecting crown fire occurrence and behavior. This paper reports on the canopy fuel characteristics and regression models to determine Canopy Fuel Loading (CFL) of young black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) trees. Equations were based on the data from 11 destructively sampled black pine plantation t...

into consideration and efficiently and economically using the resources, but also employing the cutting edge science and technology in every aspect of the process. Determining the potential fire prone regions within forest stands, plays an important role in the success rate of forest fire prevention and firefighting. Various techniques are used in...

Roe deers (Capreolus capreolus L,1758) are the smallest deer species of Cervidae Family that exist in Turkey. Roe deers are getting remarkable on the world by their increasing economic and cultural importance. Roe deers are distributed in many places in Turkey. For determining the distribution and habitat areas of mammalian species there are many t...

Bu çalışmada Elekdağ Yaban Hayatını Geliştirme Sahasındaki bazı memeli hayvanların, yaşam alanları haritalanmıştır.

Fire behaviour data and models are essential in modern fire management. Thirty five experimental line-ignited fires were carried out in a young calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) stand with the objective of modelling the rate of surface fire spread. Relationships between rate of fire spread, and fuel, weather and topographical conditions were estab...

ZET: Sincaplar insanlar tarafından en fazla tanınan Rodentia (Kemiriciler) takımına mensup hayvanlardır. Türkiye'de Anadolu ağaç sincabı (Sciurus anomalus) ve kızıl sincap (Sciurus vulgaris) olmak üzere iki tür sincabın yaşadığı bilinmektedir. Sincap Türkiye'de karasal iklim şartlarına adapte olmuş kemiricilerden olup 2000 metre yüksekliğe kadar ol...

ZET: Türkiye ormanlık alanının %35'i 1. derece, % 23'ü 2. derece olmak üzere % 58'i orman yangını açısından riskli bölgelerdir. Yangın tehlikesi yanıcı madde özelliklerinin durumuyla doğrudan ilişkili bir kavramdır. Yangınla mücadele çalışmalarında, topografik ve meteorolojik faktörlerle birlikte yanıcı madde özelliklerinin ve potansiyelinin belirl...

In this study, fire sensitivity degree in Taşköprü State Forest Enterprise was evaluated. Fire sensitivity degree was determined both at the forest enterprise and conservancy level. So that, diffrences, if any, between the fire sensitivity degrees at forest enterprise and conservancy levels could be established. Data used in this study was derived...

The prediction of fire behavior in fire prone ecosystems is of vital importance in all phases of fire management including fire prevention, presuppression, suppression and fire use. This paper deals with an experimental burning exercise conducted in the Mediterranean region in Turkey. A series of 18 experimental fires were carried out in tall maqui...

This paper presents and discusses the direct carbon emissions from experimental fires in young Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) plantation stands. The estimates were based on eighteen experimental fires carried out under different weather and fuel conditions. Total fuel loading in plots ranged from 2.14 to 3.09 kg m-2 , fuel consumption fr...

This paper presents and discusses the direct carbon emissions from experimental fires in young Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) plantation stands. The estimates were based on eighteen experimental fires carried out under different weather and fuel conditions. Total fuel loading in plots ranged from 2.14 to 3.09 kg m-2, fuel consumption fro...

Crown fuel biomass is of great importance in the field of forest-fire science. In this study, regression equations were developed for predicting needle, branch, and total biomass of young calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) trees and saplings. Equations were based on the data from 71 destructively sampled trees and saplings. The relationships betwee...

Forest biomass consumption is an important index for carbon cycling. Forest fire represents one of the important sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to biomass burning processes. Forest fire contribute to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration therefore, role of forest fires in the global carbon cycle has received increasing interest. V...

Computing fire danger and fire risk on a spatio-temporal scale is of crucial importance in fire management planning, and in the simulation of fire growth and development across a landscape. However, due to the complex nature of forests, fire risk and danger potential maps are considered one of the most difficult thematic layers to build up. Remote...

Regression equations were developed to estimate shrub fuel biomass of a maquis formation in western Turkey. The relationships between some shrub characteristics and live, dead, available (for consumption), and total fuel biomass were determined by simple/multiple linear regression. Measured biomass values for live, available, and total fuels varied...

Fuels are of great importance in fire behaviour prediction. This paper deals with the prediction of aboveground foliage and branch biomass of calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) and Anatolian black pine (P. nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder). The study was based on a total of 418 destructively sampled calabrian and black...

Fuels are of great importance in fire behaviour prediction. This paper deals with the prediction of aboveground foliage and branch biomass of calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) and Anatolian black pine (P. nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder). The study was based on a total of 418 destructively sampled calabrian and black...

This study presents and discusses the results of a fire behavior study conducted in Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder) slash. A total of 30 experimental fires were conducted over 3 years under varying weather and fuel loading conditions in aging slash. Relationships between fire behavior and...

This study presents and discusses the results of a fire behavior study conducted in Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder) slash. A total of 30 experimental fires were conducted over 3 years under varying weather and fuel loading conditions in aging slash. Relationships between fire behavior and...

Crown structure and fuel loading are important fuel characteristics affecting crown fire occurrence and behavior. This paper reports on the crown fuel characteristics and regression models to determine crown fuel load of young Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) trees. Crown bulk density (CBD), crown base height (CBH) and basal area (BA) were 0.212...

Crown structure and fuel loading are important factors affecting crown fire occurrence and behavior. This paper reports on the canopy fuel characteristics and regression models to determine Canopy Fuel Loading (CFL) of young black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) trees. Equations were based on the data from 11 destructively sampled black pine plantation t...

Forest fires are a primary damaging agent of Turkey's forests, and have a significant economic impact. Turkey has a Mediterranean climate, and over half (12 million hectares) of its forests are located in a coastal band area that is160 km wide and 1700 km long. The band starts at the eastern Mediterranean coast and includes the Aegean and Marmara c...

A total of 28 line and 24 point-source fires were ignited under varying weather and fuel loading conditions in Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold subsp. nigra var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder) stands. Relationships between the rate of fire spread and fuel and weather conditions were determined with correlation and regression analyses. The...

This study presents surface fuel (fine surface fuels and duff) moisture contents changes in normally stocked pine stands under varying weather conditions. The statistical models were developed to predict fuel moisture contents by using relations between dead surface fuel moisture contents and weather parameters. To determine the changes in fuel moi...

ZET Orman yangınlarını daha iyi anlayabilmek ve yangınla mücadele çalışmalarında sağlıklı kararlar verebilmek için yangınlar üzerinde etkili olan faktörlerin çok iyi bilinmesi gereklidir. Orman yangınları hava halleri, yanıcı madde ve topografyadan etkilenmekte ve bunlara bağlı olarak bir davranış sergilemektedir. Yangın tehlikesi, yangınların başl...

In this paper, crown fuel load was calculated for young calabrian pine. Equations were developed for predicting needle, branch, available fuel and total fuel. Equations were based on the data from 35 destructively sampled young calabrian pine trees. The relationships between needle and branch fuel load and tree properties were determined as linear...

This case study gives an example concerning the conveyance of fire behavior characteristics into practice by using GIS. For the calculation of fire behavior characteristics data on fuel, meteorology and tophograpy were used and transformed into digital maps. Consequently, visual fire behavior maps were developed in order to support the decision mak...

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been widely used in fire management, fire behavior prediction, fire danger rating systems and decision support systems. To minimize the threat of loss fr om wildfires, fire managers must be able to plan ahead the protec tion strategies that are appropriate for local area s. Fire behavior maps, prepared base...

Ölü ağaç olarak bilinen dikili kuru, yatık veya devrilmiş ağaç gövdeleri orman ekosistemi içinde biyolojik süreçte oldukça önemli rol oynar. Çoğu hayvan türünün yaşam döngüsünde kısmen veya tamamen ölü ağaçlara bağımlılık sözkonusudur. Bu nedenle ölü ağaç bir orman ekosisteminde tür çeşitliliği için önemli bir indikatördür. Bu çalışmada ölü ağaçta...