Investigation the relationship between forage production and canopy of plant species in semi-steppe rangelands of Zagheh, Lorestan

Chamanpira, Reza; Siahmansour, Reza; Arzani, Hossein

doi:10.22092/ijrdr.2020.121970.1729

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Asistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Department, Lorestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Khorramabad, Iran

² 2- Asistant Professor, Natural Resources Research Department, Lorestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Khorramabad, Iran

³ Professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22092/ijrdr.2020.121970.1729

Abstract

One of the main goals of rangeland assessment is to obtain the amount of forage production of rangeland species because it plays an essential role in determining rangeland capacity and grazing management. Measuring the amount of production requires a lot of time and costs, so finding cheap, fast and scientific methods to estimate the amount of production can be a great help in assessing vegetation and rangeland management. The purpose of this study was to find a suitable relationship between the percentage of canopy cover of species and plant classes with their production amount. For this purpose, the percentage of canopy cover of the species was examined during a six-year statistical period within 60 plots (1m²) located along six transects (200 m). In addition, each year, the amount of species production in a quarter of the plots (25% of them) that were caged to prevent possible grazing, was measured by clipping. To determine the amount of total forage production, the regression relationship between canopy cover and species production was used and based on the significance of the equation (p≤ 0.05) and coefficient of determination (R²), the best equation was fitted. The results showed that there was a significant correlation (p≤ 0.01) between production as a dependent variable and the percentage of canopy cover of the species as an independent variable. The coefficient of determination for each of the classes I, II and III were 0.77, 0.87 and 0.92, respectively, which provide the most appropriate linear production-canopy relationship for rangeland management.

Keywords

References

- Abdollahi, J. Arzani, H. and Naderi, H., 2013. Stimating of forage production using climate indicies (rainfall, temprature and wind velocity) a case study: steppe rangeland, Yazd Pish-Kooh area, Iran. Iranian Journal of Range and Desert Reseach, 20(2): 240-249.

- Arzani, H., Basiri, M., Dehdari, S. and Zarechahooki, M., 2008. Relationships between canopy cover, foliage cover and basal cover with production. Iranian Journal of Natural Resources, 61(3): 763-773.

- Arzani, H., Dehdari, S. and Gardoon, K., 2011. Models for estimating range production by cover measurement. Iranian Journal of Range and Desert Reseach, 18(1): 1-16.

- Chamanpira, R., Arzani, H., Azimi, M. and Baharvand, F., 2012. Investigating trends in vegetation and production changes. Abstract of the 5th National Conference on Range and Range Management of Iran, 15-17 May: 130.

- Ebrahimi, A., 2017. Effect of Sampling group and life- form on estimation of forage production and canopy cover. Journal of Range and Watershed Management, 70(1): 1-19.

- Flombaum, P. and Sala, O.E., 2007. A non-destructive and rapid method to estimate biomass and aboveground net primary production. Journal of Arid Environments, 69: 352-358.

- Ghasemi, A., Arzani, H., Filekesh, F. and Yari, R., 2013. Estimating the production of Artemisia siberi through the measurement of plant’s dimensions (Case study: southwest Sabzevar). Iranian Journal of Range and Desert Reseach, 20(1): 1-10.

- Gholami Baghi, N., Sepehri, A., Barani, H. and Mahini, S., 2013. Estimating plant biomass by using non-destructive parameters in Arid Regions (Case Study: Inche-Broun Winter Rangelands, Golestan, Iran). Journal of Rangeland Science, 3(4): 295-300.

- Hossaini, S. A., Mesdaghi, M. and Pambokhchyan ,C., 2013. Comparing 3 methods of forage estimation in summer rangelands (Case study: Sar-Ali abad rangelands of Golestan province). Iranian Journal of Range and Desert Research, 20(1): 23-37.

- Li, F.; Chen, W.; Zeng, Y.; Zhao, Q. and Wu, B., 2014. Improving estimates of grassland fractional vegetation cover based on a pixel dichotomy model: A case study in Inner Mongolia, China. Journal of Remote Sensing, 6: 4705–4722.

- Li, Y., Wang, H. and Li, X. B., 2015. Fractional vegetation covers estimation based on an improved selective end member spectral mixture model. Journal of PLoS ONE, 10: e0124608.

- Mesdaghi, M. and Ajami, S., 1997.Comparison of methods used to estimate biomass in Chaharbagh rangelands of Gorgan. Journal of Agricaltural Sciences and Natural Resourses, 4(4): 15-26.

- Milner, C. and Hughes, R. E., 1968. Method of the measurement of primary production of grassland. Black well Science: Oxford, England.

- Moghaddam, M., 1998. Range and Range management. Tehran: University of Tehran, 470p.

- Tarhouni, M., Ben Salem, F., Tlili, A. and Louhaichi, M., 2016. Measurement of the aboveground biomass of some rangeland species using a digital non-destructive technique. Journal of Botany,163(3): 281-287.

- Muukkonen, P., Mäkipää, R., Laiho, R., Minkkinen, K., Vasander, H. and Finér, L., 2006. Relationship between Biomass and Percentage Cover in Understorey Vegetation of Boreal Coniferous Forests. Journal of Silva Fennica, 40(2): 231-245.

- Mu, X., Hu, M., Song, W., Ruan, G., Ge, Y., Wang, J., Huang, S. and Yan, G., 2015. Evaluation of sampling methods for validation of remotely sensed fractional vegetation cover. Journal of Remote Sensing. 7:16164–16182.

- Mu, X., Huang, S., Ren, H., Yan, G., Song, W. and Ruan, G., 2015. Validating GEOV1 fractional vegetation cover derived from coarse-resolution remote sensing images over croplands. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 8: 439–446.

- Pechanec, J.F. and pickford, G. D., 1937. A weight estimate method for determination of range of pasture production. Journal of American Society, Agronomy, 29: 894-904.

- Sheidaei, G., 1982. Rangeland plants code of iran. Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, 32P.

- Siahmsnsour, R., Arzani, H., Jafari, M., Javadi, S.A. And Tavili, A., 2014. The effect of fire on production, canopy cover, composition, density and soil cover of the habitat, case study: Alpine rangelands of Zagheh basin. Journal of Watershed Engineering and Management, 4(5): 275-282.

Whelan, C., 2001. Foliage structure influences foraging of insectivorous forestbirds: an experimental study. Journal of Ecology, 82: 219-231.

Investigation the relationship between forage production and canopy of plant species in semi-steppe rangelands of Zagheh, Lorestan

References

References

Volume 27, Issue 2June 2020Pages 204-214

Volume 27, Issue 2
June 2020
Pages 204-214