Asad Sadeghpour; Javad Moetamedi; Esmaeil Sheidai Karkaj
Volume 26, Issue 4 , December 2019, , Pages 838-854
Abstract
Information of plant diversity and its relationship with environmental factors are necessary requirements for rangeland rehabilitation techniques and priority of biodiversity conservation in local habitats. To collect vegetation cover data, the Namin mountainous rangelands were selected and systematic ...
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Information of plant diversity and its relationship with environmental factors are necessary requirements for rangeland rehabilitation techniques and priority of biodiversity conservation in local habitats. To collect vegetation cover data, the Namin mountainous rangelands were selected and systematic random sampling in ecological units was used. The relationship between plant diversity and ecological unit’s characteristics (Sub-basins) was studied by recording the data in physiographic, topographic, chemistry and physics in the soil. To investigate the relationship between species diversity and environmental factors, the redundancy analysis (RDA) method was used as linear method based on gradient length. Based on the results, the physiographic and topographic had significant effect on the richness of the species. On the other hand, soil chemical properties had the greatest impact on the amount of species evenness and diversity of the ecological units and explained 89.64% of the variations. In general, slope, organic carbon amd EC are the most important effective characteristic on the enhancement species diversity idexes and the length parameters. It was also indicated that area and direction of sites are the most important factors on reduction of diversity indices. Therefore, in situations where the purpose of the management to be improve species diversity, places where are in endanger in terms of chemical properties of the soil (organic matter and, consequently, organic carbon) should be prioritized. If the aim of management to be increase in vegetation structure and percentage of plant protection from splash erosion, in this case, places where are in the southern direction and have a steep slope should be prioritized. Furthermore, rangeland rehabilitation techniques are a priority in larger-scale units due to the lower species richness, and smaller units, due to the high plant species richness, should be prioritized of conservation and protection.
Javad Moetamedi; Hosein Arzani; Mohammad Jafari; Mehdi Farahpour; Mohammad Ali Zarechahouki
Volume 26, Issue 1 , June 2019, , Pages 241-259
Abstract
The calculation of the grazing capacity requires the consideration of factors affecting it. Due to the effective factors, the long-term grazing capacity model was designed, and then the capacity of the rangelands was calculated. Grazing capacity was calculated by the proposed ...
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The calculation of the grazing capacity requires the consideration of factors affecting it. Due to the effective factors, the long-term grazing capacity model was designed, and then the capacity of the rangelands was calculated. Grazing capacity was calculated by the proposed model in four steps including estimating the average good production, calculation of available metabolic energy, the daily requirement of the animal unit and grazing capacity. Due to the drought condition of habitats and fluctuation of forage production in different years, one cannot calculate grazing capacity with once production measurement for the long-term. Hence, the average good production of habitats was determined and based on that, long-term grazing capacity was calculated. The average good production of Golestan Kouh, Vardast, and Pashmakan habitats in the statistical period of 6-7 years was estimated to be 425, 233.8 and 343.3 kg/ha, which are related to normal years in terms of rainfall. The grazing capacity of habitats in a quarterly period of four months was calculated to be 0.8, 0.3 and 0.5 animal unit per hectare so that if there is a drought for 12 consecutive months, there will be no damage to vegetation. Meanwhile, there is not much damage to the beneficiary and he will not have to sell too much of his livestock. The area needed for grazing of an animal unit in the rangelands was suggested to be 1.3, 3.3 and 2 hectare. This amount is recommended to be one hectare for a 30-year period based on a common method in range management plans. This indicates the need to pay attention to the factors affecting the grazing capacity and emphasizes the application of the proposed model in order to calculate the rangeland capacity.