Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Ph.D. Student of Combat Desertification, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
2 Professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3 Senior Research Expert, Research center for Agriculture & Natural Resources, Sabzevar, Iran
4 Ph.D. Student of Range Management, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
Abstract
Determination of grazing capacity is considered as one of the most fundamental aspects of range management and understanding the effective factors on it is of utmost importance. Since the amount of forage production in a growth period is the basis for calculation of grazing capacity, in this research the estimation of production through the measurement of plant’s dimensions was investigated. For this purpose, the habitat of Artemisia siberi was determined and then 8 transects of 50 m length were established with 10 m intervals by random-systematic method. The height and diameter of 40 species of Artemisia siberi with different dimensions were recorded and the production of each species was clipped and weighted after drying. All data were analyzed by SPSS. Results showed that there was a significant linear correlation between production as a dependent variable and volume, canopy cover and height of Artemisia siberi as independent variables (R2= 0.88, 0.84, and 0.74, respectively) at 1% probability level. Finally, the relationship between production and volume was identified as the best linear relationship.
Keywords
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