Elham Fakhimi; Touraj Mokhtarpour; Javad Moetamedi; Golnaz Taasoli; Hamzeh Ali Shirmardi; Yaghoub Iranmanesh; Mohsen Habibi
Volume 31, Issue 4 , January 2025, , Pages 357-368
Abstract
Background and objectives
Gandoman wetland is one of the top ten wetlands in Iran, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiyari province. This wetland is an important system that contains a vast array of plants and animals and help regulate the climate, as well as provide flood and erosion control, while at the same time ...
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Background and objectives
Gandoman wetland is one of the top ten wetlands in Iran, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiyari province. This wetland is an important system that contains a vast array of plants and animals and help regulate the climate, as well as provide flood and erosion control, while at the same time storing and recycling nutrients. Unfortunately, in recent years, due to human interventions, climate changes and improper management, many changes have occurred in this wetland. Therefore, in order to economically value their services and functions, and consequently to optimally utilize vegetation cover and achieve a sustainable management plan, these changes must be identified and evaluated. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating vegetation cover indicators (percentage of canopy cover and biomass of different habitats of Gandoman Wetland.
Material and methods
For this purpose, different types of the vegetation cover of the wetland were identified. Three transects with a length of 100 m were installed in each plant community. Depending on the plant community and the vegetation cover distribution and the distances between plant points were 50 to 100 meters. Each transacts contain three plots 1×1 were identified. Totally, 30 plot 1×1 were installed in each plant community and the percentage of canopy cover, aerial biomass of plant species, bare soil percentage, density and litter were estimated. The double-sampling method and relationship between the percentages of canopy cover with aerial biomass of plant species of plant species were estimated for forage yield.
Results
The results showed that there are five types of plants in the wetland. Phragmites australis-Carex riparia was frequent dominant species in the Gandoman wetland with an area about 52.90 ha. Wetland vegetation cover was 76.02 percentage and total forage yield was equal to 1695.52 grams per square meter. The greatest forage yield was belonged to Phragmites australis species (2986.7 grams per square meter).
Conclusion
In general, considering the significant amount of aerial biomass of plant types, it is recommended, In order to optimally utilize the productive plant cover and also maintain the sustainable balance of the Gandoman Wetland, plant types have been segmented and areas with plants in danger of extinction are fully protected and in areas with high density of vegetation and high susceptibility to fire, balanced, selective, and periodic harvesting methods should be used to create fire suppression, while taking into account environmental considerations.
Yaser Ghasemi Aryan; Hosein Azarnivand; Javad Motamedi; Firoozeh Moghiminejad
Volume 31, Issue 1 , June 2024, , Pages 15-27
Abstract
Background and objectivesRangeland management is the science and art of range management and administration, which requires technical and managerial foundations in decision-making and planning to protection, reclamation and sustainably use it, in parallel with each other and in accordance with the range ...
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Background and objectivesRangeland management is the science and art of range management and administration, which requires technical and managerial foundations in decision-making and planning to protection, reclamation and sustainably use it, in parallel with each other and in accordance with the range ecological conditions and beneficiary's socio-economic conditions, especially the pastoralists, should be considered. In the technical basics section, there are always several key projects, including planting, plowing, grazing management, Inter Seeding, Seeding, fertilizing, pitting, ripping, and contour furrowing, each of which has criteria and indicators. Has its own characteristics. Considering the vast area and variety of physiography and geomorphology of the rangelands, any tool that can help experts in selecting improvement and restoration projects by combining indicators can be useful. The purpose of this research is to use the geographic information system to locate suitable areas for range improvement and management projects in the Chahtalkh watershed. MethodologyFor this purpose, based on the range condition and range condition trend, a range method was developed for each plant types. For types with excellent to good condition, equilibrium method was recommended, and for types with moderate condition, natural method and consequently grazing systems were recommended. Artificial or improvement range management, were considered for types that were poor and very poor. In the next step, the homogeneous baseline maps were prepared by combining altitude, slope and direction maps. Subsequently, the homogeneous layer was combined with plant types layer and the final homogeneous units. Based on the rangeland condition and suitability yield of plant types, geological maps, soil characteristics, iso-therms, iso-rain and water resources, the characteristics of each homogeneous unit were extracted in GIS environment. Considering effective ecological and environmental criteria and indices to perform range improvement and management operations and to match the characteristics of each homogenous unit, the type of rangeland management and management operations in each homogenous unit was proposed and based on this, a round map was prepared. Finally, by superimposing the map of range improvement and management operations and customary systems, the range management model of the region was presented. ResultsAccording to the results, a wide range of rangelands have poor and very poor conditions that require artificial range management. The resulting management model showed that in 10.6% of rangelands, contour farro, in 8.3%, pitting and in 5.9%, ripping is recommended. In 29.3% of rangelands, grazing management and in 14.6% prevent livestock from entering (exclosure) are recommended. ConclusionThe model presented in the Chah Talkh watershed, which was obtained by combining the layers of RANGE condition and range condition trend, suitability yield of plant types, land use, soil texture and depth, elevation class, slope and direction, temperature and rainfall lines, and the map of customary systems, can play a significant role in provide a comprehensive and all-round management. The model enables quick and easy access to all ecological and environmental criteria and environmental parameters for effective range improvement and range management. In this regard, weighting indicators and using multi-variable decision-making tools can play an important role in more precisely choosing suitable places for range improvement and revitalization projects.
Esmaeil Sheidai Karkaj; Javad Motamedi
Volume 28, Issue 2 , June 2021, , Pages 238-251
Abstract
This study was conducted to study species diversity changes in Chaharbagh mountain rangelands of Golestan province in five different managed sites, including non-grazing (enclosure), intermediate grazing (key), and critical (village vicinity, watering point, and pen area). Numerical and parametric ...
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This study was conducted to study species diversity changes in Chaharbagh mountain rangelands of Golestan province in five different managed sites, including non-grazing (enclosure), intermediate grazing (key), and critical (village vicinity, watering point, and pen area). Numerical and parametric diversity indexes were calculated by collecting vegetation data. One-way ANOVA results showed that exclusion and key sites were better for the Shannon diversity index (2.6 and 2.1, respectively) than critical sites; however, no differences were found in the Margalef richness index. A higher ranking of diversity site of the key site indicates that it is more diverse than the restricted site. By fitting the frequency distribution models, it was determined that the exclusion and key site were related to the log series models (stable communities), and the critical sites were related to the geometric series model (unstable communities) at the 0.05 level. Frequency-rank curve plotting indicated that high grazing sites had rare and dominant species with high numbers indicating the effect of grazing pressure; however, moderate sites and high grazing sites have high evenness. Overall, the results showed that moderate grazing preserved the vegetation diversity, and exclusion had no significant effect on increasing vegetation diversity in rangelands. This result confirms the need to pay attention to moderate grazing in the field. Among the critical sites, the village privacy site is in a worse situation, and livestock grazing intensity should be reduced due to the proven effective role of medium grazing in the region to rehabilitate sites with high grazing intensity, especially in rural areas. Reducing livestock density in critical areas by increasing the number of water sources and rest areas in the field will be one of the methods to help reduce damage to plant diversity of critical sites.
Mahshid Souri; Tayebeh Alibeygy; Mehdi Erfanian; Javad Motamedi; Rostam Khalifezadeh
Volume 28, Issue 1 , April 2021, , Pages 21-33
Abstract
Gross primary production is one of the key factors for understanding growing grassland conditions and rangeland monitoring. The present study aims to introduce an improved index based on the primary GDP and NDVI vegetation index of MODIS. In this regard, field operations were carried out ...
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Gross primary production is one of the key factors for understanding growing grassland conditions and rangeland monitoring. The present study aims to introduce an improved index based on the primary GDP and NDVI vegetation index of MODIS. In this regard, field operations were carried out in May, simultaneously with the growth of vegetation in the Rasin basin of Kermanshah province. In each of the types, reference areas were determined, and six (100-meter) transects were deployed in each of the representative points. Along each transect, five plots were placed at a distance of 20 meters, and a total of 84 transects and 420 plots were used in the field. Information such as rangeland type and actual fresh forage (AFY, kg/ha) were determined in the Rasin basin. In general, three types were identified in the field. Modified primary GDP data were calculated and validated with the measured data in the Rasin basin of Kermanshah province. The results showed that, in type 1, with R2 equal to 0.77 Ss index of gross primary production of NDVI as an improved index, in type 2, Ss index of primary production of NDVI with R2 0.73, in type 3, Ss index of gross primary production NDVI with R2 equal to 0.71, and finally, for the whole rangeland type, Ss index of gross primary production of NDVI with R2 equal to 0.51 was determined as the improved index. The results also showed that the modified primary GDP data is an acceptable indicator for monitoring grasslands. The accuracy of estimating rangeland production based on the Ss index of gross primary production of NDVI was 80%. The statistical results of comparing the estimated values with field observations indicate the acceptable accuracy of statistical models in estimating production. Also, since MODIS data is available twice a day, the improved index can supply the real need for rangeland monitoring on a regional scale.
Esmaeil Sheidayi Karkaj; Morteza Mofidi Chalan; Mousa Akbarlou; Javad Motamedi
Volume 20, Issue 4 , March 2014, , Pages 720-732
Hosein Arzani; Javad Motamedi; Morteza Mofidi Chalan; Esmaiel Aliakbarzadeh Alni
Volume 20, Issue 4 , March 2014, , Pages 783-794