Mohammad Gheytouri; Mosayeb Heshmati; Yahya Parvizi
Volume 26, Issue 3 , September 2019, , Pages 772-785
Abstract
Inappropriate exploitation methods, particularly changes in rangeland use, excessive grazing, and fire have led to sever degradation of rangelands with even worse consequences observed in winter rangelands. The present study, conducted in the poor rangelands of Naftkhane Qasreshirin ...
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Inappropriate exploitation methods, particularly changes in rangeland use, excessive grazing, and fire have led to sever degradation of rangelands with even worse consequences observed in winter rangelands. The present study, conducted in the poor rangelands of Naftkhane Qasreshirin Plain, aimed to study the effects of practices carried out to improve the conditions of rangelands on vegetation cover and carbon sequestration. The study included four types of treatment including a) furrow and brush- planting, b) pitting and brush- planting, c) managing grazing system, and d) a control treatment with usual exploitation conditions. Details of vegetation cover of the rangelands including condition, trend, biomass, forage production, and rate of carbon sequestration in the four treatments were assessed using transects and quadrates. The highest production rate for biomass and forage, and carbon sequestration in rangelands was 573, 551, and 266 kgha-1, respectively, which belonged to the pitting treatment, and the lowest rates 298, 196, and 137 kgha-1 were for the control treatment. In addition, rangeland condition and trend in studied rangelands were assessed to be positive under pitting and furrow treatments whereas in the control treatment a poor condition and a negative trend were observed. Results of the study indicated that pitting, furrow, and management of the grazing system were respectively the most effective treatments in improving biomass, vegetation cover, forage production, carbon sequestration, and erosion control.
yahya parvizi; Mohammad Qeytouri; Reza Bayat; Alireza Shadmani; Afshin Partovi
Volume 25, Issue 2 , August 2018, , Pages 310-323
Abstract
This research was conducted to evaluate the potential of different rangeland planting practices for carbon sequestration in various climatic and geographical regions of the country. For this purpose, the key sites of rangeland planting practices were selected in the Lorestan, ...
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This research was conducted to evaluate the potential of different rangeland planting practices for carbon sequestration in various climatic and geographical regions of the country. For this purpose, the key sites of rangeland planting practices were selected in the Lorestan, Fars, Kermanshah, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Kordestan, Kerman, Markazi, and Esfahan. Then, the characteristics of the sites selected were recorded and sampling of soil, aerial biomass, and root was performed in a random-systematic manner. The results showed that rangeland planting practices in the semi-arid forests of central Zagros slopes had the highest carbon sequestration capacity. The seeding and pit-seeding of perennial legumes and grasses such as festuca, alfalfa, sainfoin and onobrichis could sequester up to 17.4 to 80 tons of carbon per hectare. The contribution of soil in carbon sequestration was at least 93 percent of the total carbon stock of the study area. Rangeland planting practices together with exclosure caused to increased carbon sequestration up to two times. In these areas, pit-seeding was more successful than the other practices. In the Hyrcanian regions, the seeding of perennial legumes and grasses could sequester 18 tons carbon, ranked second after range planting practices in the central Zagros slopes. Rangeland planting practices in arid and semi-arid areas of the central and the eastern part of the country showed little effect on increasing the carbon sequestration capacity compared to other areas mentioned above. The highest carbon sequestration was recorded to be 5.63 and 6.51 tons carbon per hectare for the exclosure rangelands in Kardeh and Shamsabad watershed, respectively. Land use change from dry farming to rangeland in Kardeh watershed resulted in carbon sequestration of 4.7 tons per hectare.
Mohammad Ghaitori; Yahya Parvizi; Mosayeb Heshmati; Mohammad Ahmadi
Volume 25, Issue 1 , April 2018, , Pages 44-53
Abstract
Due to the vast area and biodiversity, rangelands contribute to carbon sequestration, depending on grazing management and utilization. This research was conducted on six rangeland sites including Paveh, Ravansar, Javanrood, Einelcosh, Siahkamar, Varmenjeh, and Koohsefid in Kermanshah Province. There ...
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Due to the vast area and biodiversity, rangelands contribute to carbon sequestration, depending on grazing management and utilization. This research was conducted on six rangeland sites including Paveh, Ravansar, Javanrood, Einelcosh, Siahkamar, Varmenjeh, and Koohsefid in Kermanshah Province. There utilization types were included as exclosure, heavy grazing, and land use change from rangeland to rainfed orchard. The objective was to evaluate carbon sequestration capacity through different rangeland utilization. The plant biomass sampling including canopy cover and plant root as well as plant litter were carried out in the field along three transects of 50 m using plots. Soil sampling was also done in 0-20 and 20-40 cm soil depths. Plant organic carbon was determined by flame method and SOC was measured by the Walkley and Black method. The results explored that plant biomass variation through different land-use practices and utilization is significantly attributed to carbon sequestration, so that the highest level of carbon stock for plant biomass (4.7 tha-1) and soil (114.5 tha-1) was obtained in the exclosure site, while heavy grazing caused the lowest value of organic carbon in both plant biomass (1.3 tha-1) and soil (53.4 tha-1). In addition, the land use change from rangeland to rain-fed orchard led to 86.8 tha-1 organic carbon storage in both soil and plant biomass.