Hasan Ghelichnia; Alireza Eftekhari
Volume 31, Issue 1 , June 2024, , Pages 28-52
Abstract
AbstractBackground and objective: The monitoring and evaluation rangelands provides the necessary information for the essential planning of rangeland management. As a result, it prevents the destruction of rangelands and water and soil conservation. This research aims to prepare a continuous database ...
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AbstractBackground and objective: The monitoring and evaluation rangelands provides the necessary information for the essential planning of rangeland management. As a result, it prevents the destruction of rangelands and water and soil conservation. This research aims to prepare a continuous database of vegetation and soil indicators in rangelands and monitor their changes, determine the relationship between vegetation indicators and climatic factors, determine the trend and intensity of changes in different managements, and provide information for calculating the long-term capacity of rangelands.Methodology: For this study, the Asbchar site was selected in the rangelands of the Baladeh region in Mazandaran province and was evaluated and monitored for five years (2017-2021). In order to evaluate the indicators of vegetation cover, three transects of 100 meters were placed at a distance of 50 meters from each other. Vegetation and soil factors were measured. Vegetation factors included canopy cover, density and production of plant species, litter, rangeland condition and trend. Soil factors include pH, E.C., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic matter, soil bulk density and soil texture. Ten plots of 1m2 were placed in each transect, and a total of 30 plots were placed in exclosure and grazed areas. The crown cover of any plant species with the method of measuring the crown surface, the density by counting the number of species, the production by cutting and weighing, and the percentage of stone and gravel cover, litter, and bare soil were also measured in the plots. Data testing was done in Minitab16 software.Results:The analysis of variance results has shown a significant difference between most vegetation and soil factors in different years. The comparison of the averages of vegetation and soil factors investigated in different years shows that the highest average percentage of the total cover was related to the exclosure region. The highest average value was related to 2010, 2021 and 2019, respectively, and the lowest was the year 2017. The correlation between the total cover of the exclosure region with the total production, the percentage of nitrogen inside and outside the plant, the amount of potassium outside the plant, the annual rainfall, the rainfall of the growing season and the rainfall of autumn and winter seasons in exclosure region is significant. Also, the correlation between total production and annual rainfall, rainfall in the growing season and rainfall in autumn and winter seasons is significant. The correlation between total cover with total production, nitrogen percentage under plants, annual rainfall, growing season rainfall and autumn and winter rainfall in the grazed area is significant. Also, the correlation between total production with rainfall in the growing season and rainfall in the autumn and winter seasons is significant. The step-by-step regression results showed that climatic factors such as growing season rainfall, total fall and winter rainfall, and soil factors such as E.C., pH, % O.M. and %N were used to predict the total cover and production.Conclusion: The results of this research show a significant difference between the total crown cover, production and density of species during five years. Also, there is a significant difference between the exclosure and grazed areas in terms of all the factors examined in this research. The percentage of coverage, production and density of the perennial grasses and forbs in the exclosure region was higher than in the grazed region. The research results over five years showed that when autumn and winter rainfall and total rainfall and rainfall in the growing season were greater, an increasing trend was also seen in vegetation characteristics.
Hassan Ghelichnia; Hamidreza Mirdavoudi; Ali Cherati
Volume 29, Issue 4 , January 2023, , Pages 513-529
Abstract
Understanding the ecological characteristics of plant species and how they respond to environmental factors provides information necessary for vegetation management and rangeland management. Therefore, in the present study, the ecological needs of the species Salsola kerneri (Wol) Botsch with emphasis ...
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Understanding the ecological characteristics of plant species and how they respond to environmental factors provides information necessary for vegetation management and rangeland management. Therefore, in the present study, the ecological needs of the species Salsola kerneri (Wol) Botsch with emphasis on determining the ecological factors affecting vegetation changes and investigating the response of these species to ecological factors changes using Canonical Correspondona Analysis (CCA) and Generalized Additive Models (GAM) in Mazandaran province were discussed. Data were analyzed using SPSS17 and CANOC 4.5 software. The results showed that S.kerneri showed a significant response to some of environmental factors in its habitat. The response pattern of S.kerneri along the Ec, pH and Tnv (Lime) followed the monotonic increase model and increased with increasing values, abundance and percentage of vegetation. Therefore, with the increase of these factors in a certain range, the coverage percentage of this species increases. The response of this species along the pH of soil followed the monotonic increase model and by increasing this factor, the presence and percentage of vegetation decreased. The response of this species along the organic matter (%) of organic carbon (%), nitrogen (%) and litter%) followed the monotonic decrease model and by increasing this factor, the presence and percentage of vegetation decreased. The response pattern of S.kerneri along the clay (%),soil specific gravity, Altitude of sea, mean annual temperature, potassium (ppm) and phosphorus (ppm) followed the unimodal model and its optimum growth rate for these factors were 11%, 1.1 g/cm3,13C°,1700m,12.5°C, 700 ppm and 5 ppm respectively. It grows in lands with low to relatively high slopes, but it has more abundance in slopes of 40-50%. The highest cover percentage of this species in the eastern slopes and the lowest in the northeastern slopes. The stone (%), sand (%) and silt (%) response also followed the bimodal model. The study of this species response curve along the slope of topographic and soil factors provided valuable information to determine the ecological needs of this species that can be considered in rangeland improvement operations in similar areas.
Hassan Ghelichnia; Hajar Nemati; Rostam Khalifezadeh
Volume 27, Issue 4 , December 2020, , Pages 672-681
Mahboubeh Hadinejad; Reza Erfanzadeh; Hasan Qelichnia
Volume 27, Issue 4 , December 2020, , Pages 742-751
Abstract
The persent study was designed to investigate the effect of canopy cover of three woody species, Amygdalus scoparia, Daphne mezereum, Ebenus stellata on the composition and density of soil seed bank under their canopies. Fifteen individuals were selected from each of the woody species in Chenarnaz rangelands, ...
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The persent study was designed to investigate the effect of canopy cover of three woody species, Amygdalus scoparia, Daphne mezereum, Ebenus stellata on the composition and density of soil seed bank under their canopies. Fifteen individuals were selected from each of the woody species in Chenarnaz rangelands, Yazd provimce, Iran in autumn, 2018. then the soil samples were taken from under the canopies of woody species with a control treatment outside the canopy from a depth of 0-5 cm with an auger, 5 cm in diameter. The density and composition of soil seed banks in samples were measured through germination method in the greenhouse. The results of one-way ANOVA showed significant differences of total seed bank densities under A. scoparia (with average 1133.17 seed per m2), D. mezereum (with average 823.10 seed per m2), E. stellata (with average 793.21 seed per m2). In addition, total soil seed bank density was significantly higher than the outside of canpies (with average 134.48 seed per m2). Hemi-cryptophyte was the most frequent in the soil seed bank. The results of this research showed the positive effect of the canopy of woody species in increasing of density of soil seed bank in which A. scoparia showed a great impact on soil seed bank characteristics.
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Volume 9, Issue 4 , July 2020, , Pages 67-78
Hasan Ghqlichnia; Amrali Shahmoradi
Volume 10, Issue 3 , September 2019, , Pages 339-356
maryam daneshgar; reza Erfanzadeh; hasan qelichnia
Volume 24, Issue 3 , October 2017, , Pages 503-512
Hasan Ghelichnia
Volume 24, Issue 2 , July 2017, , Pages 280-290
Abstract
Rangelands consist of different plant species with different vegetative and phenological characteristics that have a certain grazing value. Accordingly, livestock reveals particular grazing behavior. Without knowing these behaviors, range and livestock planning and management is not feasible. To understand ...
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Rangelands consist of different plant species with different vegetative and phenological characteristics that have a certain grazing value. Accordingly, livestock reveals particular grazing behavior. Without knowing these behaviors, range and livestock planning and management is not feasible. To understand the livestock behavior, The Niak site was selected in the mountain rangelands of Mazandaran in the Plour region. Livestock grazing behavior such as the distance traveled daily, the speed of the livestock, the time spent moving, resting and grazing were investigated using GPS. The study period was from 2007 to 2010. The results showed that livestock grazing behavior was different in different months of the season. Livestock grazing behavior showed no significant differences in different years. The maximum livestock movement (min) was recorded in slope class of 15- 30% and the lowest in slope class more than 60%. On average, the distance traveled by livestock in the first, second and third month of the grazing season was calculated to be 14.84 km, 13.30 km, and 12.38 km, respectively.
Hassan Ghelichnia; Hosein Arzani; Mohammad Akbarzadeh; Mahdi Farahpour; Mojgan sadat Azimi
Volume 19, Issue 2 , September 2012, , Pages 203-220
Abstract
Rangeland assessment and recognizing changes in vegetation, yield and their affecting factors are of important issues for planning and optimum utilization management. Firstly in 2000, main habitats of Mazandaran province were determined and then a site was selected in each reference area for collecting ...
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Rangeland assessment and recognizing changes in vegetation, yield and their affecting factors are of important issues for planning and optimum utilization management. Firstly in 2000, main habitats of Mazandaran province were determined and then a site was selected in each reference area for collecting statistical data. Vegetative factors (vegetation cover and yield) were measured in 10 sites along six transects of 200 meter length in sixty plots of one square meter. According to the results, maximum average percentage of vegetation cover (50.22) and maximum yield (417.87) were recorded for 2003. Minimum average percentage of vegetation cover (47.38) was obtained in 2001 and average yields of 391.46 and 391.63 were obtained in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Consequently, a relationship was found between vegetation cover percentage and yield with precipitation. Most of the sites in which average rainfall especially in late winter and spring of 2003 was more than that of the other years, higher average of canopy cover percentage and yield were recorded in the mentioned year. Also, livestock grazing management was effective on amount of yield and vegetation cover. The sites located in highlands showed a better condition due to the cool Mediterranean climate and higher precipitation and proper grazing management in rangelands. The condition of class I and class II species of these sites was better than that of downstream rangelands. In the sites located in lower regions with a cold semi-arid climate especially in sagebrush lands, range condition was lower than that of the highlands due to semi-arid climatic conditions and the use of rangeland in Spring and Autumn. Class III species were dominant in these sites. Precipitation affected all vegetative forms and for perennial grasses vegetation cover percentage and yield were affected. Since cushion plants were not considered in yield calculation, the increment of vegetation cover percentage had no effect on yield. Annual plants also affected the yield due to increased spring rainfall in some sites.
Hasan Ghelichhnia; Amr ali Shah moradi; Sadegheh Zare kia
Volume 15, Issue 3 , January 2008, , Pages 348-359
Abstract
Providing information about range plant species, to be used as the main basis for managing rangelands, necessitates studying their ecological behavior and relationship with biotic and abiotic components of rangeland ecosystems. In rangeland ecology, this type of studies is considered as autecology of ...
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Providing information about range plant species, to be used as the main basis for managing rangelands, necessitates studying their ecological behavior and relationship with biotic and abiotic components of rangeland ecosystems. In rangeland ecology, this type of studies is considered as autecology of range plant species. This research was conducted to study autecology of two range plant species of Bromus tomentosus and Agropyron pectiniforme in Mazandaran Province. Site characteristics, including topography, climate, soil, and accompanied plant species were determined. For each of the two species, phenology, root system, and their way of presence in the vegetation cover of rangeland ecosystem were examined. The results showed that Agropyron pectiniforme grows in locations with an elevation range of 1200-3000 m above sea level. Soil texture of growing areas is loamy or silty-loam. Soil electrical conductivity (EC) is 0.45-0.94 ds/m, while soil pH is 7 to 7.86. Annual precipitation at its ecological habitats is 320-653 mm; and average annual temperature is 7.2-16.2 degree of centigrade. Canopy cover and frequency for this species were 7.22% and 36.6%, respectively. The root system of this range plant species is fibrous and distributes among soil particles down to the depth of 21 centimeter. Vegetative growth stage of this species starts in late March and ends in late April. Its flowering stage is from early May until early June, and seed ripening is in late June. The results of study on Bromus tomentosus showed that this plant grows in locations with an elevation range of 2300-3300 m above sea level. Soil texture of growing areas is loamy or silty-loam. Soil electrical conductivity (EC) is 0.40-0.72 ds/m while soil pH is 7.21 to 7.47. Annual precipitation at its ecological habitats is 510-653 mm; and average annual temperature is 7.2 degree of centigrade. Canopy cover and frequency for this species were 16.75% and 5.73%, respectively. The root system of this species is fibrous and distributes among soil particles down to the depth of 27 centimeter. Its vegetative growth stage starts in early April and ends in early May. Flowering stage of this range plant is from mid May until mid June, and seed ripening occurs in mid July. Ecological characteristics of these two range plant species need to be considered in management programs of related rangeland ecosystems.
Hasan Ghelichnia
Volume 9, Issue 2 , September 2001, , Pages 651-660