Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Investigation on Effects of Environmental and Soil Factors on Establishment of Vegetation Types (Case Study: Sabzdasht, Bafgh)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Investigation on Effects of Environmental and Soil Factors on Establishment of Vegetation Types (Case Study: Sabzdasht, Bafgh)ENMajidSadeghiniaDepartment of Rangeland Management, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran0000-0002-7028-4702MohammadJafariDepartment of Reclamation of Arid and Mountainous Regions, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, IranGhavamodinZahedi AmiriFaculty of Natural Resources, University of TehranNaserBaghestani MaybodiAssistant Professor. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center, Yazd, IranAliTaviliDepartment of Reclamation of Arid and Mountainous Regions, Natural Resources Faculty, University of Tehran, Karaj, IranJournal Article20240130This research was conducted to investigate the relationships between soil
(organic matter, potassium, phosphorous, sodium, fine gravel, soil texture, EC, lime,
gypsum, nitrogen) and environmental (elevation, slope) factors with distribution of
vegetation types in rangelands of Sabzdasht, located in Bafgh, Yazd province at 2012. For
this purpose, four vegetation types were selected as follows: Artemisia sieberi; Artemisia
sieberi, Stipa barbata, Eurotia ceratoides; Dorema ammoniacum, Artemisia sieberi,
Eurotia ceratoides; and Hammada salicornica. Minimal area was determined using nested
plots. Afterward, vegetation factors were measured and five soil profiles were dug
randomly in minimal area. In each profile, data for depths of 0-10 and 10-80 cm were
recorded. Principal component analysis was applied to analyze the data. Results showed
that soil texture, potassium, phosphorous, EC and lime had the most impact on variation
and distribution of vegetation types.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)The Effect of Altitude and Aspect on Rangeland Plant Diversity (Case Study: Dashte Zahab, Kermanshah, Iran)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130The Effect of Altitude and Aspect on Rangeland Plant Diversity (Case Study: Dashte Zahab, Kermanshah, Iran)ENAliMahdaviDept. Forest Sciences, University of IlamJavadEshaghi RadDept. Forestry, Urmia University,MojtabaJamshidifardCombat to Desertification, General Natural Resource Office of KermanshahJournal Article20240130Recognizing the herbaceous plant species diversity could use as an important
indicator applied for the rangeland and forests management. Considering the presence of
vegetation and animal husbandry in Zagros region, Iran, being aware of the diversity and
richness of plant species is necessary to management or the destructed vegetation
restoration. In order to study the effect of aspect and elevation on species diversity of
herbaceous plants 160 four m2 quadrates were sampled via transect method in the Dasht e
Zahab in Kermanshah, Iran. In each quadrate a list herbaceous species plants, altitude and
aspect were recorded. After the inventory, the plant diversity indices were calculated and
compared in three elevation classes (low: <800 m, moderate: 800 to 1200 m and high:
>1200 m) and four aspect classes (North, South, East and West) using Shannon-Wiener
diversity and Margalef richness indices. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate the
effect of independent variables (altitude and aspects) on dependent variable (species
diversity and richness). The results showed a significant effect of aspect and altitude on the
diversity and richness of herbaceous plants (P<0.05). The maximum and minimum
diversity and species richness were observed on the northern aspect coupled with middle
elevation and on the southern aspect with low elevation, respectively.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Landslide Susceptibility Mapping for Subalpine Grassland Using Frequency Ratio and Landslide Index Model (Case Study: Masoleh Watershed, Iran)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Landslide Susceptibility Mapping for Subalpine Grassland Using Frequency Ratio and Landslide Index Model (Case Study: Masoleh Watershed, Iran)ENMohammadHasan JouriDepatment of Range and Watershed Management Faculty of Natural Resources College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nour Branch, Islamic Azad University Mazandran, Iran0000-0001-7571-2596MohammadZareFaculty of natural Resources, University of Tehran.DianaAskarizadehDepartment of Arid and Mountains Regions Reclamation
Faculty of Natural Resources
College of Agriculture & Natural Resources,
University of Tehran, Iran.MonaFakhreGhaziRangeland Management, Islamic Azad University, Nour BranchTinaSalarianRangeland Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IranSoodehMiarrostamiRange Land Management,Natural Resources Faculty, Islamic Azad University of Science and Research BranchJournal Article20240130Subalpine ecosystems are highly fragile as compared to biological and
environmental factors. Landslide is one of the ruinous upshots of this ecosystem. One of the
impressionable areas in the cause of natural factor is Masoleh watershed in western Alborz
Mt, (Iran). In order to landslide hazard zonation, landslide index and frequency ratio method
based on twelve causative factors such as slope, slope aspect, land use, lithology, distance
from faults, distance from road, distance from stream, rainfall, range condition, Stream
Power Index (SPI), Component Topographic Index (CTI) and elevation Receiver Operator
Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis method was also used to evaluate the model. The
results showed that geological, physiographical and grassland conditions have an important
role in landslide area. Overgrazing, grazing in forth of season, early grazing, late term
egression, and excess livestock are considered as direct affecting factors on vegetation, so
that they have simultaneous role to make the landslide risk. The verification results via ROC
curve showed that the landslide index model (85%) performed slightly better than the
frequency ratio model (82%). It was concluded that managers and protectors of this
ecosystem can inhibit and conserve the landslide by decreasing the amount of livestock, and
short-term exclosure on critical area, and biomechanical dams in landslide-occurred area.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Assessment of Range Health Changes in Zagros Semi-Arid Rangelands, Iran (Case Study: Chalghafa- Semirom-Isfahan)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Assessment of Range Health Changes in Zagros Semi-Arid Rangelands, Iran (Case Study: Chalghafa- Semirom-Isfahan)ENEzatollahMoradiGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, GorganGholamAli HeshmatiRange and Watershed management Faculty, Agriculture and Natural Resource University of Gorgan, IRAN.AliHosein BahramianForestry, University of YasoojJournal Article20240130Rangeland health assessment provides qualitative information on ecosystem
attributes. We examined changes in rangeland health in the Zagros semi-arid rangelands of
Iran at fixed sites between 2001 and 2011, over the 10-year period. The rangeland
fragments significantly declines in the quality of the vegetation, and changes in plant
species were driven largely by seasonality, and to a lesser extent, amount of rainfall. Three
indices of rangelands health (composition, function and stability) developed using sitebased
vegetation and landscape data. The results indicated that the majority of sites had
intermediate values of the three indices, and few sites had either very low or very high
values. The indices of composition and function were strongly correlated with the
subjective ratings applied to each site at each measurement period. The results of this study
highlight the difficulty of detecting change over extensive areas of rangeland, and of
separating management induced effects from climatic effects in an environment which
experiences wide spatial and temporal variation in rainfall. Results showed that soil surface
resistance decrease and water flow pattern degradation were the most important causes in
rangeland health decrease. Although, Chalghafa rangelands have enough rain falls to
support habitation, humans had degraded the landscape. Moderate grazing is the best way
to use the grazing land without severe reduction in abundance and biomass of species.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Comparing Discriminant Analysis, Ecological Niche Factor Analysis and Logistic Regression Methods for Geographic Distribution Modelling of Eurotia ceratoides (L.) C. A. MeyVolume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Comparing Discriminant Analysis, Ecological Niche Factor Analysis and Logistic Regression Methods for Geographic Distribution Modelling of Eurotia ceratoides (L.) C. A. MeyENLylaKhalasi AhvaziDepartment of Rangeland Management, Rangeland and Watershed Management Faculty, Gorgan
University of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Gorgan,MohammadAli Zare chahoukiUniversity of Tehran, Tehran, IranFaezeGhorbannezhadDepartment of GIS and Remote Sensing, Geography faculty, Tarbiat Modares
university,Journal Article20240130Eurotia ceratoides (L.) C. A. Mey is an important plant species in semi-arid lands
in Iran. New approaches are required to determine the distribution of this plant species. For
this reason, geographical distributions of Eurotia ceratoides were assessed using three
different models including: Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA), Ecological Niche Factor
Analysis (ENFA) and Logistic Regression (LR). The study area was located in northeast
rangelands of Semnan, Iran. Sampling was performed in each vegetation type using
randomized-systematic method. Vegetation data in addition to environmental factors' data
such as topography and soil were prepared. The MDA and LR methods were performed with
SPSS software as predictive modelling methods based on presence and absence data. The
ENFA model was performed by the means of necessary statistical analysis in Biomapper
(Version 4.0) software only by presence data. The plant predictive mapping needs the maps of
all effective factors based on model parameters. Mapping of soil characteristics was done by
geo-statistical method. The accuracy of the predicted map was tested with the actual
vegetation map. Predictive maps of E. ceratoides (based on the LR and MDA methods) with
Kappa coefficients as 0.56 and 0.64 had a good accordance with actual vegetation map
prepared for the study area. Kappa coefficient of potential habitat map (based on ENFA
method) of E. ceratoides was 0.85; hence, it had a very good accordance. The results obtained
by all methods showed that this species is distributed in the rangeland with pH as 7.8-8, EC as
0.17-0.26 dc/m and silty-sandy texture in 1600-2200 m elevation. Organic matter in the depth
of 20-80 cm and pH in the depth of 0-20 cm did not significantly influence the differences.
Minimum sampling is needed using these methods which provide worth while data about the
presence of the plant species in the other places.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Identification of Invasive Species Using Remote Sensing and Vegetation Indices, (Case Study: Vazroud Rangelands, Iran)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Identification of Invasive Species Using Remote Sensing and Vegetation Indices, (Case Study: Vazroud Rangelands, Iran)ENMohadesehAmiriDepartment of Range and Watershed Management, Sari University of
Agricultural and Natural ResourcesKarimSolaimaniRS & GIS Center, Department of Range and Watershed Management, Sari University of
Agricultural and Natural Resources,RezaTamartashDepartment of range management, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, IranMirhassanMiryaghoubzadehWatershed Management, University of MazandaranJournal Article20240130Biological invasions form a major threat to the provision of ecosystems products
and services and can affect ecosystems across a wide spectrum of bioclimatic conditions.
Therefore, it is important to systematically monitor the spread of species over broad regions. It
has long been recognized that remote sensing and geographical information system could
contribute to this capacity. This paper aims to investigate the efficiency of Landsat TM images
in identifying and classifying invasive species Cirsium arvense and Stachys byzanthina in
Vazroud rangelands of Iran. For optimizing results, the Cos(t) model was used for atmospheric
correction on the image. Then multiple vegetation indices, by extracting the digital mean of
pixels related to training samples of the corrected image, were calculated. A supervised
algorithm using minimum distance of mean was used as a classification technique for
evaluation against ground truth map. The results indicated that NDVI, Ratio, RVI, TVI and
NRVI were the most suitable indices for the discrimination of Cirsium arvense species. The
best indices for the Stachys byzanthina species were DVI, NDVI, PVI 1, PVI 2, RVI and
WDVI. Of all the indices analyzed, DVI and WDVI were able to discriminate both species but
with varying degrees of separation.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Evaluation of Seeds and Pods Variation of 5 Annual Medic Medicago Spp.Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Evaluation of Seeds and Pods Variation of 5 Annual Medic Medicago Spp.ENMasoomehIzadpanahScientific Member of Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran,AliAshraf JafariResearch Institute of Forests and Rangelands; Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO)Journal Article20240130Medicago spp. is the most important forage crop in many regions of the world.
Annual medics have distinct advantages over perennial Medicago. These species have faster
growth rate in cultivation year, higher crude protein percentage, tolerance to pests and more
vigorous seedlings. Morphological and physical aspects of pod and seeds of annual medics
play a major role in the tolerance of the plants to over grazing and establishing in different
type of rangelands i.e., plants with small seeds can establish better in heavy grazed rangelands,
spiny pods establish better in dense compact clay soil, hard seeds increase seed bank of the
soil and maintain the pasture for the next years. In order to study the variation in seeds and
pods morphological traits of five annual Medicago spp. seeds of 50 accessions of M. rigidula,
M. polymorpha, M. orbicularis, M. radiata and M. minima, provided from natural resources
gene bank of Iran, were sown in pots. Data were collected for size of the seeds, spins and
pods, number of seeds per pod, levels of hardseededness and elevation of the seed origin.
Results showed that M. rigidula 1000-seed weight had the most variation. Largest seeds were
17 times bigger than the smallest one in this species. M. polymorpha showed the most
variation in the elevation of seed origin (upper=2280 m, lower=5 m above sea level). M.
radiata showed the most variation in the amount of hard seeds. M. rigidula showed the least
amount of hard seeds (mean=59.93). M. radiata had the largest pods. M. radiata and M.
orbicularis showed the highest variation in pod size. M. polymorpha showed the highest
variation of spine length. The correlation between 1000-seed weight and the elevation of seed
origin was positive and significant for M. polymorpha and negative and significant for M.
orbicularis. Based on Ward clustering method, the five species were grouped into two clusters
in a dendrogram. First cluster included M. minima and M. polymorpha and the second cluster
included M. rigidula, M. orbicularis, and M. radiata. This result indicated that it may possible
of interspecific hybridization between species of the same cluster.Journal of Rangeland Science (JRS)Desertification Evaluation Using IMDPA Model (Case Study: Taraz Nahid, Saveh, Iran)Volume 3 (2013)Issue 1, January 201320240130Desertification Evaluation Using IMDPA Model (Case Study: Taraz Nahid, Saveh, Iran)ENHamidToranjzarDepartment of Natural Resources, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, IranMoslemPoormoridiIslamic Azad University of Arak,Journal Article20240130Several studies have been performed to evaluate the desertification in Iran and
other countries which led to present national and regional models. One of them is IMDPA
model. This model was used as a case study in Taraz Nahid, Saveh, Iran. In this study, five
factors including climate, soil, vegetation, irrigation, and socioeconomic ones were
evaluated. According to the region conditions for each criterion, several indices were
considered. Based on the selected indices for each criterion, the qualitative maps were
developed from geometric mean of indices for each criterion and finally, the desertification
intensity map was prepared from the geometric mean. The final desertification map shows
the balanced (moderate) and intense (severe) classes of desertification process in the
region. According to the performed evaluations, the soil texture index with the average
value of 3.75 (very severe class) and vegetation conditions with the average value of 2.9
were more effective indices in the region desertification. Also, the desertification
quantitative intensity value (DM=2.31) was calculated for the entire study region that
showed the moderate class for this region.