JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BIOLOGY
Year:2014 | Volume:7 | Issue:1|Papers Count:13

Semnan is located in the south of the Alborz Mountains and northern plains desert with dry climates, temperate climate with low average height of 1130 m above sea level and constitute a large family of fish including carp, Cyprinus carpio, Alburnoides bipunctatus, Albumus charusini, Capoeta capoeta gracilis its dominance. Months from February 2014 to July 2014 sampling of fish parasites within 6 months of the six research stations up and down the river Hableroad, Ali Fountain, King lights martyr Dam the Fishing nets 150 pieces of the fish. The study of microscopic lesions in the skin, gills, fins and eyes of 2 different parasite species, 8 genera such as: 1 genus Ligula intestinalis class Cestoda, Identify the seven genera of Monogenea category includes 2 genera Gyrodactylus. sp, 1 genus Dactylogyrus. sp, 1 genus Dactylogyrus lenkorani, 2 and 1 Paradiplozoon. sp and Diplozoon megan. The highest and lowest diversity and parasite densities respectively with 3 and 1 Cyprinus carpio and Albumus charusini. The fish resources of this province were the highest and lowest classes Monogenea and Cestoda 7 sex with one gender, It was reported two sex organs Paradiplozoon. sp and Gyrodactylus. sp jointly Cyprinus carpio and Alburnoides bipunctatus. Length-weight regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation coefficient 2 domain (P<0.05) indicates the correlation is imperfect and partial direct and inverse correlation Cyprinus carpio and Alburnoides charusini and Capoeta capoeta gracilis.

The agamid species Trapelus lessonae (Rastegar Pouyani 2000) is one of the widespread species of the family Agamidae in Iran. It is active in day time and particularly can be seen during first and last hoers of day in summer time. In Iran, it is distributed from northwest towards southeast of the country on the foot hills, open planes and alpines along the Zagros mountain chain. In order to evaluate phylogenetic relationships among different population of this taxon in its range in Iran, several populations of this species were collected within its range from Azerbayejan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Ilam, Markazi and Isfehan provinces since mid May to early September 2012. Total genomic DNA was extracted from 33 samples, the mitochondrial gene ND2 were amplified and sequenced in all the specimens. Phylogenetic relationships among different populations were reconstructed using variety of methods (e.g Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, Bayesian Inference) and programs (e.g Mega, Mr. Bayes and Paup). The reconstructed phylogeny showed the distinct position of all populations in the tree with relatively high resolution. Considering the branch pattern of the phylogenetic tree and the amounts of genetic distances among populations, it is clear that the populations of Azerbayejan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah and Ilam are closely related and all can be attributed to the same taxon in species level. However, the populations of Isfehan and Hamadan are relatively far from the western populations so that they probably can be considered as a distinct species.

Anzali Lagoon and Shirud River are two important spawning areas in south Caspian Sea for kutum. Due to the economically valuable of this fish, molecular and population genetic structure of this fish was investigated using microsatellite markers. For this purpose, 100 samples from two regions were collected and DNA was extracted. Ten pairs microsatellite primer was used for PCR which all made polymorphic patterns. Data resulted: 191 alleles were observed. The maximum numbers of alleles (18) were found in two loci (Ca1 and Ca3) and the minimum number of alleles (2) was found in MFW1 locus. The differences between samples of two regions were not statistically significant (P>0.05) neither for average number of alleles per locus nor for observed heterozygosity. The calculated Fst was 0.056 and significant (P<0.01). Most samples of two areas were not at Hardy-Weinberg equation test. The genetic distance was 0.407 which indicating the high genetic distance between populations. The data generated in this study showed that the Caspian Sea kutum in Anzali Lagoon and Shirud River are two independent populations. Therefor preservation of gene diversity and implementation of fisheries management based on excess of each population should be considered.

Sarakhs is one of the most biologically diverse regions in Iran, encompassing an elevational span of 250-2500m, and 5472 km2 and high habitat diversity. Sarakhs also is geographically isolated form central Iran by Hezar Masjed and Mazdoran Mountain in south. A Sarakhs region is contact zone between West and east Palaearctic avifauna. During More than 14 year fieldworks since 2000 we investigated avifauna of the region, our result show high species richness in small area in the Sarakhs, more than 225 birds species are reported from the area, that some of them are only restricted to Sarakhs in Iran (for example Turkestan tit, Oriental pigeon). More fieldworks and bird ringing are recommended for further avifauna investigation in the area.

This survey was carried out by R/V Guilan ship with a conical plankton net of 100 micron mesh by vertical hauls at different stations and depths of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100m in 2010. In this study, 16 species formed the zooplankton community including 4 species of Copepoda, 4 species of Rotatoria, 2 species of Protozoa and 4 species of Cladocera from Holoplanktons and 2 species of Balanus sp and Lamellibranchiata larvae from Meroplanktons. The annual results revealed that the mean abundance of zooplankton were 5477±5815 ind/m3 in spring but the maximum biomass (64.58±124.61mg/m3) was in winter that was affected by Rotatoria. The maximum mean abundance and biomass of Copepoda were in summer that were 2830±2342 ind/m3 and 22.52±21.78 mg/m3, respectively and the abundance decreased gradually since autumn and reached the least in winter but increased since spring. The mean maximum abundance of Cladocera (115±142 ind/m3) was in spring but it gradually decreased, The Protozoa constituted the least community and biomass of zooplankton in southern area of Caspian Sea. The zooplankton community also was affected by Meroplanktons including Cirripedia and Lamellibranchiata Larvae in spring and the Rotatoria contributed highly in zooplankton community in winter with the mean abundance and biomass of 2604±5876 ind/m3 and 50.71±115.33 mg/m3 respectively. It was observed the reduction trend in abundance from surface depths to deeper depths in whole of the year. There were 75% of zooplankton community in stations with 5 to 20m depth and 25% of community in stations with 50 to 100m depth in spring, and also 74% in stations with 5 to 20m depth and 26% in stations with 50 to 100m depth in summer, 73% in stations with 5 to 20m depth and 27% in stations with 50 to 100m depth in autumn and 85% in stations with 5 to 20m depth and 15% in stations with 50 to 100m depth in winter. In analysis of different area of southern basin of Caspian sea the maximum abundance was observed in west in spring, summer and winter which were 7514±8115 ind/m3, 3909±2609 ind/m3 and 8129±11587 ind/m3, respectively. There was 2283±2134 ind/m3 in center area in autumn. The annual statistical analysis revealed that, there was significant difference in total zooplankton community between sampling stations, depths and layers in whole of the year.

This research presents data from a ten-year (2002-2011) monitoring of migratory wintering waterfowl and wader’s fauna species diversity in Boushehr site (wetland habitats of Boushehr beaches). The results showed that during a 10 periods from 2002 to 2011, a total of 113606 wintering birds composed of 78 species from15 families and 6 orders of the bird’s fauna of Iran were observed in the Boushehr site. The most common species counted was the Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) with a total of 57087 individuals. The results indicated that among families of migratory wintering waterfowl and waders in Boushehr site the largest family was Laridae with 59.96 percent abundance and the lowest was Pelecanidae with 0.02 percent. In these periods of studying, year of 2007 with 28043 individuals has the highest population numbers and year of 2008 with 1112 individuals has the lowest. The highest and lowest species richness recording in years of 2011 and 2008 with 56 and 23 species respectively. The results showed that in this period wader’s fauna with 88.30 percent and waterfowl fauna with 11.70 percent respectively has the highest and lowest abundances. According to the results of species diversity and evenness the year of 2011 has the highest biodiversity of migratory wintering waterfowl and wader’s fauna in Boushehr site and year of 2006 has the lowest biodiversity (P<0.05).

The zigzag mountain viper (Montivipera albicornuta) was first described in 1985 by Goran Nilson and Clases Andren. Since that time it is known as an Iranian endemic viper species. Its geographical distribution range is confined to Iran in four provinces of Gilan, Ghazvin, Eastern Azebayejan and Zanjan, usually inhabiting the highlands and mountains with over 2500m elevation. In order to determine the amounts of genetic variation among different populations of this species in three geographically distant localities, 35 specimens of this species in three provinces of Gilan, Zanjan and eastern Azerbaijan Were collected. After extracting the genomic DNA, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) were used to amplify the mitochondrial CO1 gene in all specimens. The amplified DNA fragments were then sequenced and analyzed with PAUP and Mega5 softwares. Phylogenetic methods of Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Laikelihood and Neighbor Joining were applied to recinstruct phylogeny of the populations. The results of this study indicated that different populations of Montivipera albicornuta is Iran are quite homogenous genetically, so that the mean genetic difference among its populations is not greater than 0.005. This results indicate that the zigzag mountain viper may distributed in Iran quite recently so that the geographically different populations are just in the beginning of a speciation process.

Climate change is a major concern for the management and conservation of biodiversity. The last decade has provided compelling evidence that the impacts of climate change on the world’s biodiversity are likely to be significant. Very little is known about the effects of climate change on the Iranian Herpetofauna. In this study we investigated the effects of climate change on Mesopotamian Spiny-tailed Lizard (Saara loricata) in Iran. We developed a habitat suitability model for this species in Iran using maximum entropy algorithm and 19 current and future (2080) bioclimatic variables. The performance of the model was assessed using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) metric of Receiving Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve. Our result shows an increase in suitable habitats for the species under the predicted climate change. We also developed a habitat suitability model for this species in Iran with the Bioclim, using current (2000) and future (2080) bioclimatic variables. Our results indicate that despite an increase of the area with high suitability for the species, overall suitable habitats will decline under the expected climate change. These results are contrary to results of maximum entropy algorithm.

In this study, in order to identify the Parishan lake fish fauna, sampling was performed in four seasons during 2009. Fish were captured by fishing net and transferred to laboratory of veterinary medicine of Islamic Azad University, Kazerun Branch for identification. The results showed that 9 fish species live in Parishan lake that in Order of mean of frequency are: Capoeta Barroisi persica (25.30±1.45), chalcaburnus sellal (17.90±2.03), Barbus luteus (16.04±0.76), Cyprinus carpio (17.89±0.45), Garra rufa obtusa (14.19±1.04), Carassius carassius (8.64±2.77), Mastacmbelus mastacmbelus (1.23±1.07), Liza abu (0.61±1.22) and Barbus grypus (0.61±1.22). Also the frequency of species according to seasons showed that in the spring, capoeta barrosis persica, In the summer Chalcalburnus sellal, In the autumn Capoeta barroisi persica and In the winter cyprinous carpio had highest percentage of frequency.

Birds are a big part of vertebrates which are distributed in a vast area of our country such as dried region and desert, forests, coastal zones, Islands, Lakes and other parts. Since, birds are main elements of most of the world’s ecosystems; the aim of this study was to identification of birds fauna in sarigol national park. This study was conducted in the 7037 ha Sarigol National Park (57̊ 36-57 47 E and 36̊ 16 55- 37 08 N), located 24 km east of Esfarayen city of North-Khorasan province, Iran. Birds were identified according to the flight, size, plumage, behavior and sound. We use 10*40 binocular. This study was conducted from May 2012, to May, 2013 during one year in the area. In this area 58 species (10.5 percent of Iranian birds) were identified. Thirty- sex species are belonging to order Passeriformes and four species are belonging to order Columbiformes, three species are belonging order Coraciiformes, two species are belonging to order Galliformes, two species are belonging to order Apodiformes, two species are belonging to order strigiformes, six species are belonging to order Falconiformes, one species is belonging to order Caprimulgiformes and one species is belonging to order Cuculiformes. Order Passeriformes with 35 species.Since this area is important for breeding species, is suggested each year was a comprehensive investigation to identification of breeding birds.