Journal of Natural Environment
Year:2016 | Volume:69 | Issue:2|Papers Count:23

In this research, elemental and chemical characteristics of atmospheric dust particulates including major and trace elements in two synoptic meteorological stations (Abadan and Urmia cities) during dust events and ambient periods have been evaluated. Results showed that during dust events to ambient periods in both stations, major elements including Ca, Mg, Al and trace elements comprised P and U significantly increased. During non-dusty days, toxic elements including Li, Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Nb, Cd, Sb, Pb and Th due to accumulation of contaminants and combustion of fossil fuels and civic wastes in both stations increased. Comparison of elemental amounts in Abadan and Urmia shows that some elements such as Na, K, Si, Mg Al and Ca in Abadan station are as much twice as Urmia city. Elements of P, Ti and Mn are at the same amount. But Fe element has the highest concentration in Urmia city than Abadan. Also quantitative amounts of Ni, Pb, Cu, Cd and Co elements in both stations are same and some of which including V, As and Se in Abadan station are as 2-3 much as Urmia city. But some elements such as Cr, Zn and Sn at Urmia are in significant amount to Abadan station.

Modeling potential distributions in order to find unidentified populations of rare and endangered species in inaccessible areas is a promising tool for conservation biologists. Mountain viper comprises M. raddei raddei, M. latifii, M. r. albicornuta, and M. Kuhrangica, which are patchily distributed throughout Alborz and Zagros Mountain Ranges of Iran. Locality points were collected for mountain vipers from western Iran and large-scale habitat variables related to topography, climate, and land use/cover were used in the modeling. Results indicated that temperature in the warmest month, precipitation in the driest month, and slope were the most important predictors of mountain viper presence in suitable habitats. Pooling the results of the modeling methods, we found that possibility of finding new populations of mountain vipers is highest in Kermanshah, Kordestan, and Hamedan provinces. Currently, 31.6 percent of the suitable habitats identified in our models are represented within the network of national protected areas, indicating that a great portion of populations are faced with serious threats in their unprotected habitats. Considering the recent and predicted rates of global warming, our climatic models point to a continuous contraction of suitable habitats for mountain vipers from the past to the year 2070. This thought-provoking finding warns that the negative effects of climate change on biodiversity and specifically in our study, endemic mountain vipers.

Gharaviz no hunting area is known as one of the most important habitats of Persian gazelle (Gazella Subgutturosa Subgutturosa) in West Zagros Mountains. Developing models to predict the distribution of wildlife is suitable tool for conservation and management. In this approach, the boundary of the study area was considered the distribution area and then were compared with actual region. Field data collected in the framework of the ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA), used to developing the habitat suitability model by Biomapper software. In the correlation matrix the presence point data as the dependent variable and 14 independent environmental variables were considered. The results showed that Persian gazelle selects hilly areas with the average height of 590 meters, the average southern slope of 13% and a maximum distance of 1290 to 1775 meters of the springs and watering points with the vegetation type Po. bu - An. gr as fall and winter habitat. Persian gazelle in fall more towards the outside and in winter tends to stay within the boundaries of the region. Tolerance factor decreases from fall (0.602) to winter (0.334), which can be the result of anthropogenic impact on environment.

Pollution of agricultural lands is a widespread problem in mine regions. The transport of the pollutants through the food chain, causes their accumulation s in tissues of plants and animals which endangers their health. This study aimed to measure the concentrations of heavy metals (lead, copper, zinc and manganese) in wheat roots (Triticum aestivum) of Darreh Zaresh villages which might be used for future environmental monitoring. Ten wheat samples, were collected from each of four villages. After dry acid digestion, the metal concentrations were measured using an ICP-OES instrument.According to data normality by the Kolmogorov - Smirnov test was performed, to check for significant metal concentrations in villages one- way ANOVA and For comparison of mean metal concentrations villages Tukey test was performed by using SPSS (17) software. Concentration of Cu, Zn, Pb and Mn in the roots of wheat samples collected from different villages were significantly different. The highest concentrations of copper, lead and zinc, were observed in wheat roots of Darreh Zereshk village (60.3, 164.3, 123.1, 197.8) mg/kg dry weight, respectively and the highest concentrations of manganese were observed in wheat roots of Hasan Abad village (224.8) mg/kg dry weight. The lowest concentrations of copper, lead, zink and manganese were observed in wheat roots of Darreh Gazeh village (9.8, 21.1, 43.1 and 118.1) mg/kg dry weight, respectively. Results showed that metal concentrations in the samples decreased with distance from the mine. The concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn are in critical rang in Darreh Zereshk village and in normal rang in Darre Gazeh village.

In this study, species richness, evenness and vegetation biodiversity were investigated in stabilized and nonstabilized cut edge areas of Chachkam district forest roads in Sari forest of Iran.18 micro plots 1´1m (36 micro plots) were sampled to carry out this research on two cut edge areas. Number of trees, shrubs and herbaceous were recorded in each micro-plot. Significant difference was investigated between the two regional diversity indices using One-way (Duncan) in SPSS16 software. In addition, various diversity indices were calculated using of PAST software. The results showed that in the two cut edge areas, the number of herb species are 1185 and 366 respectively, the number of regeneration of tree species are 220 and 41 respectively and mean of richness Menhinick's index for regeneration of tree species are 0.61 and 0.35 respectively, mean of richness Margalef' s index are 0.42 and 0.25 respectively, mean of diversity Shannon's index are 0.44 and 0.19 respectively and diversity Simpson's index are 0.26 and 0.12. Also mean of Menhinick's index herb species richness are 0.75, 0.73, richness Margalef's index are 1.21 and 0.75, diversity Shannon's index are 1.26 and 0.66 and Simpson' s diversity index are 0.63 and 0.34. The statistical test results show that diversity and richness indexes have significant difference in the two cut edge areas of forest road but the significance difference have not been observed for the index of regeneration of tree species.

Nowadays, air pollution is one of the main challenges worldwide. There have been significant improvements in air quality dispersion modelling. AERMOD is one of these models which is based upon the Gaussian Model.However, AERMOD has some limitations in terms of data input and output. Therefore improving this model as well as developing new models adopted to our country is required to be addressed. The current research aims to develop a new model in MATLAB programming software. AERMOD and MATLAB were first investigated and then Atmospheric Dispersion Assessment Mapping Model (ADAMM) was proposed to displace AERMOD.To verify the ADAMM, results of modelling for identical pollution sites were compared. It was found that ADAMM overestimates concentrations of pollutants in comparison with AERMOD. However, ADAMM has some advantages in particular as a domestic model in different areas. It performs better in short distances (<5 km, r=0.53) than far apart. In addition ADAMM provides a user friendly environment to manipulate input and output data while reducing the simulation time. While AERMOD has specific file formats for its own input data, ADAMM follows commonly used formats such as Microsoft Excel. Data output in ADAMM is presented in different formats including MS Excel, ASCII, 2D and 3D. The other advantage of ADAMM is that it provides a single interface for all necessary operations such as data input, manipulating, modelling, and data output while a suite of modules are required to run AERMOD with each one performing a separated task.

When pesticides are present in high concentrations in the environment causing irreparable, metabolic, physiologic and structural damage on the organisms. Diazinon and Deltamethrin are of the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the northern Iran that can enter aquatic ecosystems. Anatropous fishes like Kutum have most reactions with pollutants because of their spawning in the first spring. Kutum is suitable species for toxicity testing in the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, due to the wide distribution. The aim of present study was to determine the effects of Nano-clay in reducing the fatality rate of diazinon and Deltamethrin on the Caspian Sea Kutum.210 pcs kutum with a mean weight of 24 g were collected from fish stocks Syjval and after two weeks of adaptation in laboratory toxicity tests carried out for 96 hours. The results of this study showed that 500 mg / L clay is the greatest losses while 1000 mg / L Nano clay increased the death toll is likely to rise due to high water and mud contaminated fish is breathing difficulty.

The aim of the present paper was to assess the maximum biochemical methane potential (BMP) of municipal solid waste. A fresh stock of the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste was composed, based on the typical composition of biodegradable waste disposed in landfills. BMP tests were performed under controlled conditions in 168 ml bottles at 35oC. The cumulative methane generation profile was corrected for methane generation attributed to inoculum and then normalized by dividing to the VS in each bottle. Modified three parameter Gompertz model was fitted to the observed cumulative methane values to obtain the ultimate methane potential of the waste samples. The result of this study showed that with an ultimate methane yield of 217 ± 6 (ml gVS-1), anaerobic digestion can be a promising approach to manage the organic fraction of MSW in an economical and environmental sound manner.

Degradation of pesticides after production and before usage can reduce efficiency and therefore make them unusable. Stockpile of these pesticides in the world is an environmental and health threat. Therefore the management of obsolete pesticides is essential around the world. This study investigated the possibility of recycling the expired pesticide stockpiles of agricultural supportive services company. Quality control tests were performed according to the FAO, CIPAC and pesticide manufacturers' guidelines. The results were classified based on the different groups of pesticides, physical state of pesticides formulation, producing companies, date of production and location of warehouses. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square test, in case of significance; the risk test was performed to determine the relative risk for the variables using SPSS-18 software. Result showed a no-significant correlation between the time lagged after production of pesticides and percentage degradation of pesticides (r=0.427, n=10, P>0.01). The percent degradation of expired insecticides was highest and then the herbicides and finally the fungicides. The percent degradation of expired pesticides formulated in the country was 45% and those formulated in India/China were 58%. The results show that 55% of pesticides with liquid formulation and 29% with solid formulation were degraded. Considering the degradation rate of pesticides, there is no statistically significant differences between the warehouses atfour climatic regions (P>0.01).

The present study aimed to compare the efficiency of BMWP, ASPT and diversity indices in environmental monitoring of temporal rivers. For this purpose, four sampling stations were selected along the Kheiroudkenar River and macro invertebrates were sampled monthly with three replicates (from July 2012 to November 2013). BMWP and ASPT were calculated using the specific scores of each family. Our results showed that with the exception of the station close to the Najar-deh village, with a BMWP score of 64.2 indicating fair water quality, other stations in the river had good water quality. The calculated scores for ASPT index also showed similar results. However, the Shannon-Wiener index predicted moderately-polluted state for the stations 1, 3 and 4 and heavily polluted state for the station 2. There was a positive correlation between BMWP and ASPT. In general, according to seasonality, habitats conditions and fluctuations in physicochemical parameters of this temporal river, macro invertebrates composition at the studied sites demonstrated higher reliability as a biological index.

The importance of Zagros forests and interdependence of local communities to forest resources have led to complexity of its management. The role of local communities and investigating their relations toward implementation of natural resources co-management are undeniable. Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach is a new method which illustrates relations among local beneficiaries and has important role for planning, policy making and successful implementation of natural resources co-management. In this research, relations between local stakeholders in Gor-Gu region of Boyer Ahmad district have investigated using SNA through macro level indicators (density, centrality, periphery, transitivity, geodesic mean distance) toward forest co-management.The results revealed that social cohesion and capital based on trust and collaboration links are medium to high.Stability and equilibrium of stakeholders’ network are medium and correlation between trust and collaboration is high (79%). The results demonstrated that trust and collaboration transfer speed is medium to high and has led to approximately high resilience and adaptation capacity among the actors in the context of environmental changes. According to geodesic mean distance index it is concluded that solidarity and unity among the actors are medium to high. This is illustrated that trust improvement will resulted in more adherence to local laws and traditions in the case of natural resources utilization.

The rapid growth of industrial activity in recent decades, and non-obedience with environmental laws, along with discharging of contaminant wastewaters from petrochemical industries lead to increase of heavy metals into the environment. Bio sorption is an effective technology for optimal removal of pollutants such as heavy metals from marine ecosystems. In the present study, the microorganism, resisted to zinc, was isolated from Persian Gulf sediments and indentified via biochemical tests. Then, the growth ability of indentified microorganism was investigated in different concentrations of zinc. Also, the effect of salinity on the growth of microorganism was studied and the optimal conditions for its growth were determined. Eventually, the potential of bacterium in removal of zinc was studied.Micrococcus luteus was isolated as a zinc-resistant bacterium and identified using biochemical tests and bacteriologic references. The mentioned bacterium was able to grow up to a high concentration of zinc (800mg/l). The results showed that the removal of zinc enhanced along with the increase of zinc concentration. The maximum removal (169±0.4 mg/l) was recorded in 200 mg/l concentration of zinc and the highest percentage of zinc bio sorption (76%) was happened at a concentration of 50 mg/l after 150 min of incubation. The result showed that M.luteus was halo tolerant and could grow in the wide range of salt concentrations.

Knowledge of the physiological characteristic of tree and shrubs species and their adaptability to environmental factors is an important issue in species selecting for tree planting projects in water scarcity regions. Therefore, this investigation try to examine the chlorophyll content and stomatal conductivity in various species of trees and shrubs. The effects of environmental factors are also evaluated. The statistical population consisted of 12 trees and shrubs species that their chlorophyll content was measured by using “Chlorophyll Content Meter” and stomatal conductivity was measured in 10 days by using “Porometer”device. Air temperature and wind speeds were recorded at each measurement with a portable “Testo”. Environmental data correlation with vegetation parameters were analyzed by multivariate data analysis. The results revealed that chlorophyll content and stomatal conductivity in different common species in urban green space have a widespread range.Nerium has the highest chlorophyll content and Ceasalpinia has the lowest chlorophyll content. Likewise, Fraxinus and Ceasalpinia have the highest and lowest stomatal conductivity. Stomatal conductivity rate in the morning is higher than any other time in a day. While, Ceasalpiniaand Nerium show the highest negative correlation with temperature, Albizia and Cersis show the highest positive correlation. Wind increase stomatal conductivity in Pyrocantha and Robinia and decrease in Olea and Morus. It has less effect on other species.

One dimension approach for management has been resulted in many challenges in order to sustainable policy. Network governance and ultra-structure insight implication could remedy some of challenges of sustainable development. The aim of this paper is analysis of institutional network with co-management of Sorkheh Hesar National Park in Tehran province. Quantitative approaches are used for this research and all relevant institutions of co-management have been included. Based on results of this research, institutional cohesion is 41 percent (medium) and sustainability of institutional network is about 48 percent (medium) according to reciprocity index. The network centrality is medium based on output links that can be concluded politics must be focused on reducing centrality on decision making for sustainable management in Sorkheh Hesar National Park at regional level. Finally, this is concluded that network analysis is a successful tool that helps managers and planners to effective network governance. This is necessary to strength the institutional cohesion for natural resources policy making.

This study was conducted to assess the concentration of some heavy metals and to examine their contamination hazard in atmospheric dust of urban, industrial and non-urban areas in Bushehr province, southwestern Iran.Fifty dust samples from the leaves of the palm trees and fifty surface soil samples from Bushehr and Assaluyeh cities as urban and industrial areas, respectively, and also from the transect between the two cities as a nonurban area were collected. The total concentrations of Pb, Cu, Co, Cr, Mn, Zn and Ni in dust and soil samples were determined by an atomic absorption spectrometer following the digestion with 6 N nitric acid solution. The degree of contamination of atmospheric dust samples with heavy metals was assessed using indices including enrichment factor, degree of contamination and pollution load index. The results showed that the concentration of Pb, Cu and Zn in dust was affected by traffic and industrial activities. Pollution indices indicated that Pb had the highest enrichment factor among the heavy metals falling in the “Very High” class of enrichment in all the three areas. The highest degree of contamination in dust of Bushehr Province was found for the urban area of Bushehr categorized in the very high pollution class. Results of the degree of contamination and pollution load index showed that atmospheric dust of Bushehr Province is contaminated with heavy metals.

The quality of surface water within a region is mainly influenced by natural processes such as precipitation, soil erosion and weathering, geology, vegetation and anthropogenic activities. The most important factor is geological formation in watershed and water flow path. In this study, the spatial variations of physical and chemical parameters of surface water including EC, SAR, Cl and TDS and factors influence on water quality were investigated in the Seimareh and Kashkan rivers in Ilam and Lorestan provinces. For this purpose the water quality data sets collected from the 14 hydrometric stations along the rivers during the 1-year (2009-2011) and analyzed. So the accuracy of the geostatistical interpolation methods such as kriging (OK), cokriging, and deterministic methods like inverse distance weighting (IDW) and radial basis function (RBF) in mapping of the studied parameters were evaluated. The result showed that based on the RMSE criteria, for all studied parameters, kriging and cokriging methods were showed lower RMSE while between deterministic methods, RBF is better than other interpolation techniques. The investigated variatins of physical and chemical parameters of surface water quality revealed the causes of increasing amount of physical and chemical parameters in Kashkan River and its tributaries were related to impact of geological formations in the region especially Gachsaran and Aghajary.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the barriers to right environmental behaviors by the citizens of Zanjan. The experts working in the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources in Zanjan formed the population of this descriptive – correlation study. The sample size was estimated using Cochran's formula (n=60). Samples were selected using stratified random sampling method. The questionnaire used for collecting data. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by the comments of academic members. The reliability was determined by pilot test and calculating Cronbach alpha coefficient (0.78-0.86). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Using exploratory factor analysis barriers to respect the environmental behavior by citizens were summarized into six factors including: Lack of knowledge, culture and urban facilities, lack of education and understanding of the need to protect the environment, organizational problems in human resource management and weaknesses in relationships and dealing with citizens, administrative and regulation inefficiency, neglect of educating children and social teachings, and inconsistency between environmental organizations. These factors explained 81.77% of barriers to respect the environmental behavior by citizens.

Efficiency of the existing protected areas network in conservation of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges of protected areas custodians. Despite there are numerous articles on evaluating the efficiency of the protected areas for conserving the habitat and species on national and international scales, however, in Iran this subject has not been studied yet. The aim of the present study is to investigate the efficiency of Iran’s protected areas in country's biome protection. The results showed large differences in country's biomes coverage by protected areas categories. Given that each category of protected area has different goals and existence of all categories is essential to achieve the goal of biodiversity conservation, it is recommended that in the future development of protected areas in country, the appropriate coverage of each biome should be considered. This means that the map of country' s biomes is suggested being the basis for selection of new protected areas in country.