Journal of Rangeland
Year:2020 | Volume:14 | Issue:3|Papers Count:14

Appropriate use of rangelands, creates vegetation stability, prevents degradation and improves their suitability conditio. Determination of allowable level of vegetation utilization of the species could lead to plan for the proper distribution of livestock on rangeland. To measure the level of use, a 0. 5 ha exclosure was established in Karsanak site before the start of the growing season in 2007 and 40 individual Plants of Bromus tomentellus were selected randomly inside of the exclosure in order to determine the effect of different harvesting intensities (simulated grazing) on forage and seed production. Clipped treatments included 0, 25, 50 and 75 percent of annual growth. There were 10 replications in the plan. Clipping continued for 4 years in three months of grazing season. Vigor and freshness, mortality, plant maximum height, forage and seed production were observed and measured during the 4 years. Data were analyzed in a split plot design in time with SAS software. The results of forage production of Bromus tomentellus showed that the effect of years is statistically significant at 1%. And the interaction of the year and different intensities of harvest, is not significant at the 5%. Lowest forage production has happened in 2007 harvesting at 25% and its highest in 2009 in control treatment. The results of seed production showed that the And the interaction of the year and different intensities of harvest is statistically significant at 1% But their interaction was not significant at the 5% error level. Due to environmental changes affecting of this species, it can be concluded that about 50 percent of annual yield removal is safe for persistence and health of Bromus tomentellus in Karsanak and other areas with similar climate and soil conditions in drought years but the harvest of up to 75 percent in normal years apparently does not harm the plant.

Presence of invasive species on rangelands is a degradation sign. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of invasive species Leucanthemum vulgare Lam. on the structural and functional characteristics of Fandoghlou rangelands in the Namin county of Ardabil province. The model used for sampling was the stratified random systematic. Two main sites with the presence and absence of L. vulgare were selected to study the flora, vegetation characteristics, and species composition and diversity. Independent t tests was used for comparison of data related to the vegetation, diversity and evenness in both sites. The results showed that totally there is 80 species, nine of them in sites with the presence of L. vulgare and 19 species with the absence of L. vulgare. Also 52 species were found in both sites. Canopy cover and production of forbs, density and canopy cover of grasses and also density and total plant production between the sites were significantly different (P<0. 01). According to the results, diversity indicators between the sites were also significantly different (P<0. 05), but richness and evenness indicators of both sites did not show any significant differences. Result of the study suggests to find suitable methods such as planting of rangeland species and reduction of grazing pressure to control, to tackle the problem of L. vulga invasion on the Fandoghlou rangelands.

Rangeland ecosystems have many valuable functions, the value of the most of these functions yet unclear. The aim of this study was the determination of tourism value of Maleshoure and Gurgo rangelands in Boyer Ahmad city using individual’ s willingness to pay. To investigate the factors affecting the individual’ s willingness to pay, The logit regression model was used. Data extraction was carried out using a two-dimensional method, required data were collected by filling in a questionnaire and interviewing 150 visitors from the mentioned area. Based on the results of the model, nightly accommodation variables such as cost, household income, satisfaction with welfare services and the proposed rental rate were significant. These are the most effective factors in the number of visitors WTP for using the rangelands of the region. The results showed that 64 % of visitors are willing to pay for recreation. Results showed that the average WTP is equal to 25984 Rials. Also, the annual recreational value of this region was about 259840 Rials per hectare which could be sumup fot the whole atea as 1852 million Rials. This indicates that attention of visitors to the recreational resources of the area is heigh. Due to recreational value of the study area, it is suggested that policy makers, to increase the budget pay more attention on this factor. Also, tourism can play an important role in increasing the income of the rangers.

Currently the use of animal husbandry in Iran is dependent on rangeland forage which makes it the main land use practice on those areas. Ignorance of relationship between the rangeland’ s capacity and economic life of the users, puts the rangelands in danger due to the pressure on their resources. That’ s why the vastness of rangeland and its stocking rate should be known whereby calculation of required land to fulfilled the need of the household could be done for different climatic zones. For this purpose, 160 rangelands with a total area of 181216 hectares and different management conditions (with and without the grazing licence, with and without range management plan) were chosen in five climatic regions. Based on available resources and guidelines, the short-term stocking rate was calculated. In the next step, On the basis of given answers to questionnaires, animal and the net annual income of the user were calculated. Information was analyzed to determine the size of a herd or the number of animal units that could financially meet the needs of nomadic or rural households was calculated. Consequently, the size of the range required by the exploiters, in different climatic zones were estimated. The results showed that the herd maintenance cost and needed income varies in different climates due to rangeland’ s quantity and quality of forage. The minimum flock size for a five-person household; in humid climate consist of 152 animal units; in the semi-humid region 156 units; in the Mediterranean climate 133 units; in the semi-arid climate 214 units; and in the dry climate were 220 units. At the same time, the minimum size of the rangeland for four months in a humid climate was calculated as 137 hectares, in the semi-humid region as 251 hectares, in the Mediterranean climate as 226 hectares, in the semi-arid climate as 406 hectares and in dry climates by 485 hectares. Results shows that under existing situation (Year of study 2015), the size of the rangelands allocated to the most rangeland projects are lower than the optimal economic level. Therefore, the rangeland office in the province should plan for economically viable rangeland plans which means large-scale ranching schemes with the emphasis on economic herd size. In addition, technology and use of renewable energies may reduce the cost of living. And a ten years strategy should be set in a way that animal husbandry gets more profitable.

Aesthetic is an added value to other precious values of rangelands and helps its ecosystem conservation. Unfortunately, there is not plenty of researches run on this issue and its probable value. Instead emphasis has put on ecosystem management especially on the basis of marketable products. In this study, the people willingness to pay for the aesthetic of Sarbijan rangeland landscapes and its affecting factors were investigated using 184 questionnaires, the contingent valuation method and logit regression model in 2018. The results showed that more than 78 percent of visitors and 86 percent of residents had high to very high aesthetic sense to the region’ s rangelands. Vegetation diversity was the most important factor affecting the landscape beauty from their point of view. The results of economic valuation showed that proposed price negatively and homeland interests, educational level, monthly income, and beauty of land positively affect willingness to pay for the region aesthetic function. The willingness to pay for the aesthetic function has been estimated to be 28798 Rials, which shows the visitors and residents attention to the aesthetic function of the Sarbijan rangelands is high. Understanding of the value of aesthetic function of rangeland will increase moral responsibilities of people to the natural landscapes and greatly contribute to the development and implementation of natural ecosystem conservation programs with the public participation.

Identification of climatic characteristics affecting the annual yield of Rheum Ribes can be useful in management and development of this species in the rangelands. In this research, the annual yield of this species in Khorasan-Razavi province based on 74 climatic parameters during a ten-year period evaluated and affecting climatic parameters extracted using data mining methods. First, the role of climatic parameters associated with temperature, humidity, rainfall and sunny hours analyzed using correlation and regression methods. Then, 11 classification algorithms in MATLAB software programmed and compared. The results showed that the Rheum Ribes yield has a positive relationship with the average of maximum temperatures in the summer, the range of high temperature in May to September, the maximum of summer temperatures and the relative humidity and rainfall of the spring. Evaluation of the algorithms using the indices of coefficient of determination and mean square error showed that in estimation of the annual yield based on climatic factors, the pattern recognition method at the testing stage with a coefficient of determination equal to 0. 46 and regression methods, classification discrimination and K nearest neighbor (KNN) at the training stage (coefficient of determination equal to 1) had the best performance. With regard to the effective factors in stepwise method, the linear regression method at the testing stage (coefficient of determination equal to 0. 74) and K nearest neighbor method at the training stage with coefficient of determination equal to 1, estimate the Rheum Ribes yield more accurately. Also, the proposed K nearest to mean (KNM) method for k values equal to 6 and 7 with regard to all factors and the effective factors resulted from stepwise method, respectively, had higher accuracy in yield estimation. So, application of data mining methods and the proposed model, in recognition of climate parameters affecting different rangeland species could be a practical approach.

Among the environmental barriers to plant growth and yield, drought, an icon of arid and semi-arid regions is the most important factor in reducing production. Teucrium polium L. is one of the most important medicinal plants of the family Lamiaceae that exists in these areas. In order to study the effect of drought stress on some physiological and morphological traits of Teucrium polium L., an experiment based on randomized completely design was conducted with three replications at Research Greenhouse of Natural resources College of yazd. Water deficit levels included100% field capacity as the control, 75% field capacity (mild stress), 50% field capacity (medium stress) and 25% field capacity (severe stress). The results showed that the branches height per plant with (100. 48 cm), fresh and dry weight of stem with (5. 7 and 2. 3 g) and concentrations of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium in aerial with (3. 58, 0. 45 and 2. 7%) in 75% field capacity treatment was observed. Also, with increasing drought stress level (medium stress) chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content were increased. The most level of forementioned factors was observed at 50% of field capacity treatment with 7. 3, 21. 5, 6. 2 27. 6 mg / g, respectively. further water deficit (25% crop treatment) showed that the concentration of these pigments decreased. On the whole the experiment results showed relative tolerance of Teucrium polium L. to drought stress. Therefore, for better establishment of this plant in the fields it is better to transfer the seedlings to the pasture either by rooting the cuttings of the plant under greenhouse conditions or by planting seeds for one year in the greenhouse.

Insight into the relationship between plants and environmental characteristics is essential for managing rangeland ecosystems. The present study investigate the effect of soil and topographic factors on the distribution of the most important medicinal plants in Khosh Yeilagh Golestan province. Parameters such as density, frequency and canopy percent were the subjects of the study. Random-systematic method was used through plots establishment along the transect in the study area. The geolocation and gradient levels, altitude and sea level were measured and recorded. Through each transect, soil samples were taken at the center of 3 plots from 0 to 30 cm depth. Physical and chemical properties of soil were then measured. In order to introduce the most effective environmental factor on distribution of medicinal plants, Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) were used in PC-ORD5. The result of CCA showed 53% of the total variation was justified by the first, second and third axes. Elevation, geographic and organic factors with correlation coefficient of-0. 520, 0. 472 and-0. 470, respectively, in the first axis of ordination, the gradient factor with a correlation coefficient of 0. 601,-0. 568 and-0. 558 in the second axis and the sand percent factor with a correlation of 0. 400 in the third axis of ordination was introduced as the most effective factors on the distribution of medicinal species in khosh Yeilagh. Obviously in future rehabilitation of the rangelands result of the study could improve the production of the medicinal plants.

This research was carried out to determine nutritive value of Medicago polymorpha and Malva parviflora in various growth stages. The study was conducted at three rangelands during December 2013 to May 2014. The samples of plants were randomly taken in three stages including vegetative growth, flowering and maturity (seed production). Samples of each stage and place were analyzed for DM, CP, EE, NDF, ADF, ADL, GE, Ca, P, K, Mg, Na, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, DMD, OMD and DOMD determination. Randomized Completely Blocks design was used with three treatments (growth stages) and three blocks (studied rangelands). Results showed that NDF and ADF content of plants increased with the growth but their CP, Ash, P, K, Cu, DMD, OMD, DOMD content and Ca content of M. parviflora decreased. Ca, K, Mg, Na, Fe and Mn content of studied plants at different growth stages were higher than those critical limits for Dashtestani sheep with average weight of 50 kg and native goat with average weight of 35 kg, but P content of M. polymorpha at flowering and maturity stages, P content of M. parviflora at maturity stage, Cu content of plants at maturity stage and Cu content of M. polymorpha at maturity stage were less than those critical limits. Totally, these plants are good enough for grazing ruminants specially at vegetative and flowering stages and if possible, it should be increased in the same ranges.

Grazing effect on vegetation cover and soil factors in natural environments is inevitable. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of grazing on soil factors and distribution of plant species in grazed and non-grazed areas in rangelands of western parts of Hoz-e-Soltan Lake, Qom. Systematic-randomized sampling method was used alongside of 4 transects. Adjacent to the transects 10 plots of 4 square meters were put within the exclosure and its outside. In each plot, soil samples from 0-30 cm depth were taken. The list of plants and their canopy cover were determined for each study site. Also, the properties of acidity, electrical conductivity, soil texture, lime, percentage of phosphorus, sodium, potassium, calcium, Magnesium, chlorine, carbonate, bicarbonate and nitrogen were measured. Using the CANOCO software, ordination of the plant communities was drawn according to the characteristics of the soil by conventional comparative analysis (DCA, CCA). The results showed that livestock grazing have impact on the relationship between vegetation and soil in this area. As the results showed, nitrogen in addition to salinity and sodium had a significant effect on vegetation changes in the grazed area. In fact, proper grazing management increases the amount of nitrogen in the grazed area. Which could be count on as a soil improvement tool in terms of nitrogen content increase. More nitrogen in its turn increases the presence of two important species namely Suaeda aegyptiaca and Artemisia sieberi. Results suggest that as livestock grazie from the shrubs, as the dominant plants of the area, the deterioration of other plants is prevented and the quality of forage production is increased. Therefore, by managing livestock grazing in the studied area and other similar steppe regions, improvement of vegetation composition gets possible and consequently soil properties improves in the long term.

Economic and therapeutic value of medicinal plants have encourage the people to increase cultivation of these plants in the world. Glycyrrhiza glabra is one of Iranian native plants which is used in the food, pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. The aim of this research is to identify suitable lands for cultivation of Glycyrrhiza glabra using ANP Fuzzy method in Ligvanchay watershed, Ardabil. Eleven criteria in four clusters including climate, soil, physiography and socio-economic were weighted using expert’ s opinion in Super Decision software. Land use map was prepared using Landsat image and support vector machine method. Also, Fuzzy method was used to prepare same scale layers in Idrisi Selve software. Finally, potential map was prepared using weighted linear combination method in ArcGIS. Based on results, Altitude, slope, soil depth and soil fertility factors were the most important layers respectively. Results showed that 1936. 85 ha (26. 96%) of area have high or very high potential for the task. Based on results by changing the pattern of farming from cereal dryland to licorice can create a better economic benefits.

Traditional animal husbandry is one of the main livelihoods of the villagers. Due to the current lack of profitability of animal husbandry in steppe, arid and desert rangelands, the villagers were reluctant to keep it healthy and graze livestock in an appropriate manner. Consequently destruction of rangelands and reduction of activities put the rangelands in recession. So, the goal of this research is analysis of factors affecting livestock recession in terms of economic, social, managerial and ecological factors, in Yazd steppe rangelands using the experts points of views. The statistical population of the research consists of a total of 40 professionals, natural resources experts, faculty members of the university, the agricultural research and training center of the province and experienced range managers. Using Expert Choice software and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the final weight of the main factors and sub-criteria were identified and ranked. Among the studied factors, livestock income of economic index, the tendency of young people to non-agricultural occupations from social index, forage shortages due to overgrazing from management index and drought item of ecological index having weights of 0. 041, 0. 43, 0. 029 and 0. 118 respectively and are the most important indicators affecting the recession of traditional animal husbandry. Results suggests: providing low interest’ s loan, job creation in other non-agricultural sectors, allocation of subsidies to livestock products and extensive advertising for selling organic animal products.

Stipa hohenackeriana in terms of forage production and soil protection is especially important. In this study, was predicted the potential effects of climate change on the future geography distribution of this species in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province located in Central Zagros region. To do this, 122 species presence point of this species is collected by GPS, along with 9 environmental variables including bioclimatic, physiographic and land cover/land use variables were used. Ensemble methods were used to predict S. hohenackeriana distribution including the Generalized Linear Model (GLM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Generalized Boosting Method (GBM), Flexible Discriminant Analysis (FDA), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Random Forest (RF). The future projections were made for both year 2050 and 2070 with four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) scenario (2. 6, 4. 5, 6 and 8. 5) and general circulation model MRI-CGCM3. Our findings show that estimated suitable habitats of the species covers about 22. 37% of the study area for the S. hohenackeriana. The mean temperature of the wettest quarter, Precipitation Seasonality and Isothermality had the greatest effects on the species’ distribution in the study area. Due to climate change, the least and most decline of suitable habitats of 18. 72% (RCP2. 6) to 42. 87% (RCP8. 5) may occur by 2050 and 2070, respectively. Based on the assessments, Random Forest was determined to be the most reliable model among the seven models studied. The region mapped in the study as suitable habitats’ for the species could be effective for the re-establishment and re-introduction of S. hohenackeriana species.

Soil seed bank can facilitate natural regeneration of rangeland ecosystems. This bank is usually influenced by local plant species. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of canopy cover of three shrubs (Amygdalus scoparia, Daphne mezereum and Ebenus stellata) on the diversity and richness of soil seed bank under their canopies in Chenarnaz rangelands, Khatam city, Yazd province. Fifteen individuals of each shrub were selected and one soil sample including 10 cores was taken from each sub-canopy along with a control treatment outside the canopy from 0-5 cm soil depth by auger, 5 cm in diameter. Diversity and richness of soil seed bank in soil samples were estimated using germination method in the greenhouse located in Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University. Species richness was obtained by counting the number of plant species in each sample as well as the Margalef and Manhinick indices. Species diversity was calculated using the Simpson and Shannon-Weiner indices. The results of one-way ANOVA showed that the mean values of richness and diversity under the canopy of A. scoparia, D. mezereum and E. stellata were significantly higher than outside the canopies. The highest values of Margalef (2. 12) and Manhinick (1. 48) richness indices and, Simpson (0. 72) and Shannon-Weiner (1. 59) diversity indices were observed under the cover of E. stellata. We can conclude that the positive effect of upper canopies of woody plants on soil seed bank depends not only on the presence of woody species but also on the type of species in the rangelands. In addition, this canopy of woody plants is important due to its role in soil seed bank reservoir for recovery of herbaceous species with higher potential in E. stellata.