Large dams produce important changes in flow regime and sediment deposition and distribution in rivers. When inundation starts with the building of dams, water surface area increases, flow rate decreases, and sediment carried by the river is deposited in the reservoir. | Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Turk J Agric For (2015) 39: 663-678 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Physical and chemical properties of recently deposited sediments in the reservoir of the Borçka Dam in Artvin, Turkey 1, 2 1 Bülent TURGUT *, Mehmet ÖZALP , Bahtiyar KÖSE Department of Soil and Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, Artvin Çoruh University, Artvin, Turkey 2 Department of Watershed Management, Faculty of Forestry, Artvin Çoruh University, Artvin, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted/Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Large dams produce important changes in flow regime and sediment deposition and distribution in rivers. When inundation starts with the building of dams, water surface area increases, flow rate decreases, and sediment carried by the river is deposited in the reservoir. However, there is a lack of research on the physical and chemical properties of recently deposited sediment in reservoirs of large dams. We aimed to fill this gap in the literature by providing valuable data on the initial formation of sediment deposition areas in reservoirs. Therefore, the aim of this study conducted within the Borçka Dam reservoir was to estimate some physical and chemical properties of deposited sediment, including grain size distribution, penetration resistance, water-stable aggregate, moisture content, organic matter content, and pH at two depths (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm). Another objective was to analyze the distribution of these properties across the sampling site. For this purpose, one of the aforementioned sediment deposition areas, approximately ha, was designated as the study site; the study site was further divided into intersecting transects of 10 × 50 m. The penetration resistance values were determined in the field and 182 sediment samples were taken at 91 intersection points of transects, both from the surface (0–10 cm) and subsurface .
