Assessment of Soil Quality Index for Tea Cultivated Soils in Ortaçay Micro Catchment in Black Sea Region

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine soil qualityby taking into consideration the integrated Soil Quality Index(SQIw) model on tea plantations located in Ortaçay MicroCatchment of Rize. In the SQIw model, soil indicators wereweighted by means of the Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP). Various indicator units were normalized by aStandard Scoring Function. A total of 22 soil qualityindicators were included in the SQIw model by grouping into4 criteria which are; i-soil physical properties, ii- soilchemical properties, iii-macronutrient elements, ivmicronutrient elements. Twenty eight soil samples werecollected from tea cultivated gardens including dominantlyLeptosol and Alisol-Acrisol great soil groups based onFAO/WRB classification. The results indicated that 25% ofthe soil samples studied had weak quality level, whereas 75%were in moderate SQIw class in terms of tea requirements ofthe soil quality.