Journal of Rangeland
Year:2021 | Volume:14 | Issue:4|Papers Count:14

In this study, changes in species diversity, richness, evenness and dominance of rangeland plants were investigated using Shannon-Wiener, Simpson, Menhinick, Margalef and Hill indices in the elevation gradient from the near Ghezel Ozen river rangelands to the highlands of Kosar county in Ardabil province. In this elevation gradient, eight habitats were selected from the near of Qezel Ozen River to the highlands and three 100-meter transects were located in each habitat and then samples were collected from ten 1 or 25 m2 (only on site two) along each transect. Species were collected from each plot and then identified and their plant functional types were determined and, in each plot, canopy cover percentage and density of species were recorded. Diversity, richness, evenness indices and dominance of species were calculated at the total level of plants and one-way anova and Duncan's test were used to compare the differences between the sites. The results showed that changes in elevation, slope and aspect had a significant effect on diversity, richness, evenness indices and dominance at the total level of plants, but at the level of plant functional types, elevation on forbs and grasses was not significant, but in shrubs, except Menhinick richness index, which was significant, the effect of slope and aspect had fluctuations. The results of comparing the values of the indices showed that the highest dominance was observed in the elevation class of 937-965 m and the indices of diversity, richness and evenness were observed in the elevation class of 1635-1677 m for total plants. The highest dominance was observed in slope class 30-45%, diversity and evenness indices were observed in 45-60% class and richness in 0-15% class. Moreover, the highest dominance was observed in western aspect, and diversity, richness and evenness indices were calculated in northeastern aspect for total plants. In general, it can be concluded that due to the severity of the use of low altitude rangelands, the diversity and richness of the species have decreased, while in higher altitudes, due to reduced livestock populations and improved climatic conditions, indices have mostly increased. Therefore, according to the results of this study, changes in the indices of species diversity, richness and evenness can be used as a criterion to improve the rangelands condition in the study area, as well as to adopt appropriate management plans.

Testing ecological potential of lands for range management is one of the essential knowledges for proper range management policies. To cover the need this study was carried out in the mountainous rangelands of Mir dowood in Urmia province of Iran. Environmental map units were first prepared to extract the the more or less environmental characteristics the units. Two methods were imposed to the map units to create towin maps under different cenarios. Adaptation of both maps were statistically tested. In the first method, the weight of the criteria and indicators used to determine the priority of each user was considered to be the same based on Boolean logic (zero and one). In the second method, the weight of criteria and indicators was figured by paired comparisons (hierarchical analysis). Units were classified for rangeland use and put into four suitability classes namely high, medium, low and non. The results of hierarchical analysis method (second one) showed that 69. 5% of the area was suitable for rangelands. The results of paired comparisons method showed that soil erosion, land unit types, composition of plants and climate factors were meaningful effects on determination of the suitability of the land for rangeland use. Having said that, results also showed that the physical characteristics of the area was the most influential criteria.

Rangeland destruction has been exacerbated by the economic poverty and the weakening of the social capital of rural residents in recent years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explain the role of economic poverty and social capital of beneficiaries in rangeland degradation of Bijar protected region. The statistical population of the study included 1124 rural households residing in Bijar Protected Area. According to Cochran formula, 287 households were selected as statistical sample and proportionally divided between the villages. Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics, economic assets (household income and cost), social capital, and rangeland degradation. After confirming the validity of questionnaire by the experts' opinion, the reliability of social capital and rangeland destruction questionnaire are obtained 0. 83 and 0. 79 respectively that showed the appropriate reliability of researcher-made questionnaires. The viewpoints of beneficiaries regarding rangeland degradation were studied in three parts including factors related to livestock and animal husbandry, cutting and harvesting and land use change. Data were analyzed using chi-square, paired t-tests and Pearson correlation coefficient using SPSS 16 software. Relative poverty line was used to separate the poor and the non-poor and 66% of total monthly household expenditure was used to calculate it. According to the results of the study, the per capita relative poverty line in the study area was estimated 2130000 Rials in 1398, that 24. 7% of studied rural residents were poor. The mean score of social capital for beneficiaries is estimated 3. 12 in a moderate manner. There was a significant relationship between variables such as age, educational level, occupation, household dimension and income with poverty of beneficiaries. According to the beneficiaries' viewpoint, conversion of rangelands to agricultural land, long grazing and competition in livestock grazing with the mean of 4. 14, 3. 62 and 3. 24 are the most important causes of degradation of rangelands, respectively. According to the results of the study, the average rate of rangelands degradation by poor respondents was significantly higher than non-poor respondents. Also, from the viewpoint of beneficiaries with higher social capital, factors related to livestock and animal husbandry and cutting and harvesting have a greater effect on rangeland degradation. There was no significant difference between poor and non-poor beneficiaries in the aspect of social capital, although the average scores of social capital was higher among non-poor respondents. Therefore, by improving the economic condition and reducing the economic and social poverty of rural residents, one can expect a reduction in the rangelands destruction of Bijar protected region.

Management of milk process through indigenous knowledge is one of the most important parts of livestock management among herders. Herders do the hard and exhausting work of milk process through local customs and traditions with collective help in a full harmony with their surroundings. This study was conducted to study the traditional system of milk processing management. For the study 70 families in Haft Cheshmeh village, Azarshahr city were selected using qualitative methods through direct observation, participatory observation and organized interview. According to the findings, milk processes include livestock counting, gathering the herds, milking, milk measurement and preparing processed marketable materials plus what is needed for family consumption. There are various social roles in this process locally named as Yanchi, Shepherd, Suttchiller, etc. In the milking cooperative, Sutchlerbashi, which is a woman is the leader and plays a key role in advancing the cooperative's goals. Selection of Sutchlerbashi is largely determined by the amount of daily milk her herd can provide the community with. Strength and perpetuation of the organized milking processing cooperative is the task division among herders in the region. This system is simple and effective without any socio-economic and ecological problems.

For sustainable management of livestock grazing in rangeland ecosystems, comprehensive understanding of vegetation dynamics and their response to grazing intensities is necessary. This will help for identifying causes of changes in composition and vegetation communities. In this study, life span, vegetative form, life form, plant families and palatability classes as functional groups, and diversity, richness and evenness indices were used in investigation of vegetation response to different grazing intensities. The study was conducted under four grazing intensities (non, light, medium and heavy) in semi-steppe rangeland of Karsank and Bardeh, Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari province, Iran. Sampling was made at representative and homogeneous areas of each grazing intensity by random-systematic method and canopy cover of plant species were measured in 240 plots. The results showed that increasing grazing intensity, species diversity and richness according to margalef indices are decreased. Under the same condition menhinick and evenness indices showed higher number for species diversity and richness. Among the studied plant families, by increasing grazing intensity the canopy cover of Chenopodiaceae and Euphorbiaceae increased and the canopy cover of Poaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Apiaceae decreased. Except perennials, hemicryptophytes and perennial grass, showed a significant reduction from the reference area to the critical one. Comparison of most functional groups also indicated reduction in their canopy cover percentage at higher grazing intensity. Reduction of plants of class I and II of palatability is seen from non to heavily grazed area.

Soil compaction reduces pore space in the soil and subsequently diminishes the diameter of capillary tubes in the soil. This limits the plant's access to minerals and pore water. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate soil compaction in order to improve rangeland’ s management as well as agricultural lands. In this study, soil compaction effect on root growth of five rangeland plant species, Ferula gummosa, Agropyrin elangatum, Medicago minima, Atriplex canescens and Atriplex lentiformis, at laboratory scale was investigated. First, three soil compaction levels (0. 36, 0. 47 and 0. 56 persentage of porosity) for a loam-clay soil were provided using hammer dropping method within plastic pots. In the next step, three seeds from each species were cultivated in each plastic pot with three replications. After a period of 60 days, the length of main and subsidiary roots were measured. One way ANOVA test method was used for statistical analysis of data. Results shows a linear relationship between soil compaction and growth of main and subsidiary root for cultivated species. So, with decreasing in soil compaction degree, the growth of main and subsidiary root was significantly increased. Comparison of main and subsidiary root growth of the studied plant species showed that the growth of main root of Atriplex canescens was higher than other species in all soil compaction levels. Moreover, Atriplex canescens was only species in which its subsidiary roots length was not significantly different in all soil compaction levels. Also, in two plant species of Medicago minima and Atriplex lentiformis, there is not significantly different between the growth of their main roots in all soil compaction levels. Results showed that subsidiary root number increased with reducing soil compaction. The highest percentage of measured frequency in all plants is related to the subsidiary roots of 0-100 cm in porosity of 56%. Therefore, by increasing the amount of porosity and consequently increasing soil porosity, the conditions for longitudinal growth of the roots of rangeland plants are provided. However, the rate of root growth changes in the subsidiary roots is far greater than the main root.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 35 years of spate irrigation on total biomass (TB) and carbon stock (CS) of dominant species of rangeland plants in Kowsar station located in Gareh Bygone Plain, Fasa, Iran. Samples of Heliantemum lippii, Dendrostellera lessertii and Artemisia sieberi were taken from two sites, irrigated through flood spreading and without flood spreading as the control in autumn 2018. The TB and CS of the plant samples were measured. The obtained data were analyzed using randomized complete block design and the means were compared with Duncan test at P<0. 05. The results showed that the effect of spate irrigation, plant species and their interactions on TB and CS was significant at P<0. 01. The comparison of the means showed that the reaction of the H. lippii was very high compared to the flood spreading, so that the TB of this species increased from 671. 63 to 2013. 94 and its CS from 381. 90 to 1106. 20 Kg/ha, respectively, i. e. 2. 00 and 1. 90 fold. In the case of D. lessertii, the TB and CS increased 40. 00 and 38. 64%, respectively. A. sieberi showed a slight negative reaction to flood spreading, so that its TB decreased from 1005. 25 in non-flood conditions to 780. 9 99 Kg/ha with spate irrigation. The A. sieberi showed a slight negative reaction to flood spreading, so that its TB and CS decreased from 1005. 25 and 547. 10 in control to 780. 99 and 429. 30 Kg/ha in flood spreading stripes, respectively. Although, this decreases were not significant at the P<0. 05. With respect to the vastness of rangelands in our country, it is possible to store large amounts of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere (entry the international arena of carbon trade) and reduce the effects of climate change through the flood spreading.

This study was conducted to identify and analyze the effects of some invasive/undesirable plants on rangeland ecosystems. To analyze the risk of invasive species presence, on livelihood of the local people, a hierarchical analysis method was used. Factors used included 3 main criteria, 8 sub-criteria and 5 options. The main criteria were impact, invasion and growth potential. A linguistic scale was used to weight the criteria and options using the hierarchical analysis process. Questionnaires distributed among rangeland experts to express the degree of importance of the factors for evaluation. To check the accuracy of the criteria, compatibility ratio of each criterion was calculated in Expert Choice software. The results showed that Stipa capensis, Echinops dichrous, Alhaji mannifera, Peganum harmala and Carthamus lanatus had more destructive effects, respectively. The results of this study may be used for the control of invasive plants in rangeland ecosystems.

Due to widespread degradation of rangelands, one of the most effective ways to recover rangelands is to utilize range improvement methods. Pit-seeding is one of the common methods of range rehabilitation which is difficult and time consuming. Determine of the most appropriate place for its successful execution is data demanding and needs numerous factors to be involved. Theats why, the use of fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods will be helpful. One of these methods is the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchical Process. In this study, four ecological criteria i. e., vegetation, soil, physiography and climate were selected along with fourteen sub-criteria. Fuzzy pair comparison matrixes of criteria and sub-criteria were determined through fuzzy analytic hierarchical process; and using triangular fuzzy numbers, proportional importance of each one of them towards others was presented by getting the opinions of experts. Later with the help of Chang's extent analysis, weight of FAHP for criteria and sub-criteria were obtained. Then, the data layers of the sub-criteria were determined and weight of FAHP were applied on them. Finally, the weight-given data layers were created and ranked suitability of land for application of pit-seeding project in Maravehtappe watershed were achieved. The results showed that for the project, climate and vegetation with the weights of 0. 559 and 0. 190 and the sub-criteria of rainfall, plant composition and temperature with the weights 0. 368, 0. 162 and 0. 093 are the most important ecological factors respectively. The results showed that 1. 49% of the studied region is excellent for pit-seeding. The ecological results were validated threough field visit. Correctness of results for pit-seeding project was calculated as 86. 94%. The results showed that using AHP and Fuzzy models, can simplify the complicated processes and removs uncertainties. Tus it is an appropriate tool for the managers in land improvement projectes.

Rangelands which could save more than one third of the earth biosphere carbon, are one of the most important source of carbon sequestration. These lands have the greatest potential for carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration of dominant rangelands plants namely Artemisia sieberi, onobrychys cornuta, Stachis inflate, Stipa hohenakeriana are the scoop of this study. Soils of the study area, Tilabad rangelands in Golestan province, were taken from the established plots to determine organic carbon content and bulk density. Species with the highest carbon sequestration were identified using the Tukey multiple comparison method in R software. Results of 32 plots samples showed that the highest amount of biomass carbon is sequestration has happened in Artimisia siberi (1. 35 kg/ha) and the lowest by Stipa honenackerian (1. 15 kg/ha). The amount of soil carbon rate for Onobrychys cornuta species was 31. 67 ton per hectare that indicates its outstanding role in soil carbon sequestration. Recognition of capacity of native species for each region helps to understand the importance of natural ecosystem. Safety of natural resources is a major rehabilitation operation to U-turn of degraded and eroded lands from perspective of carbon sequestration.

The present study was undertaken to determine the physicochemical and palynological characteristics of 18 honey samples from three areas in West Azerbaijan province. Sample preparation for palynological and physicochemical analyses was carried out at the University of Gӧ ttingen and QSI (Bremen), Germany, respectively. Honey samples were compared in terms of electrical conductivity, proline, HMF, diastase activity and major sugar composition. No significant differences in physicochemical parameters were observed in the samples. Based on a descriptive statistic, more than half of the pollen required for honey production in all three sampling areas were collected by bees merely from two genera, i. e. Astragalus and Plantago. About 50 percent of nectar was collected by bees from Astragalus. The results of cluster analysis of the pollen spectra in the honey samples showed that all but one honey sample from Marmishou could be separated based on their pollen content. This study showed that the pollen content in honey reflects the plant diversity in any given area. As rangeland vegetation, particularly Astragalus species, have played a considerable role in honey production in the whole study area, the preservation of rangeland ecosystems is of crucial importance for development of beekeeping industry and rural production.

Ethnobotany is a science that studies the relation between a particular ethnic or culture groups in a particular area with the native plants. This research studies the ethnobotany and indigenous knowledge on medicinal and food plants of Darwishchai Sarein local poeple. The ethnobotanical knowledge of residents of 5 villages namely Verniab, AliDashi, Vargeh Saran, Ujour and Alvares was investigated. Required information on the use of medicinal and food plants was collected using open-ended questionnaires. knowledgeable persons in a discourse-based manner were selected for filling the forms. Results showed the 57 medicinal and food species in the study area are used by local communities. These plants belonged to 21 plant families. The most species belonged to Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Rosaceae, Fabaceae and Apiaceae, respectively with 12, 9, 7, 5 and 3 species. The results also showed that from the 57 species, 27 are categorized as medicinal and 30 are put in both medicinal and food caregories. The most and least used organs were leaf (41%) and flag (1%), respectively. Residents in the watershed are using the herbs as brewed for 68. 42 percent of the plants used. Usage of food plants is mostly in soups, 19. 3%. According to the results, most medicinal plants are used to prevent the colds and coughs (35%). Resuts of the research could be used for medicinal and food plants management in the region. In addition it shows that the knowledge of elderlies ahould be respected and used.

This study was conducted to investigate the efficiency of taxonomic and functional diversity indices in explaining the amount of soil carbon storage of rangelands in the Nazluchay mountain area, Urmia province. For this purpose, soil and vegetation samples from nearly homogeneous map units were collected to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the soil as well as taxonomic and functional diversity. Climatic data were also recorded. The results of the study showed that there is no significant relationship between taxonomic diversity and soil carbon indicate. The results of the hierarchical regression showed the soil storage carbon has a significant linear relationship with silt characteristics, soil bulk density, modified aspect, CWMleaf length functional diversity index (as a representative of mass ratio hypothesis) and Feve and MFAD indicators (As a representative of the niche complementarity hypothesis). The resulting model has a coefficient of determination of 0. 6. All parameters except soil bulk density have a positive relationship with carbon storage and in terms of standard regression coefficients, MFAD and CWMleaf length parameters with coefficients of 1. 2 and 0. 2 have the highest and least role in explaining soil carbon, respectively. In examining the hypotheses of how diversity affects the soil carbon, both the hypotheses of ecological niche complementarity and the hypothesis of mass ratio, are governing in the ecosystem of soil ecosystem storage, but the hypothesis of ecological niche complementarity plays a major role in relation to other hypotheses due to the high standard coefficients in explaining carbon. Based on the results, soil storage carbon increases based on increasing the frequency of long-leafed species, increasing functional evenness (uniform abundant distribution of species in the space of functional traits) and ultimately increasing the diversity of functional groups. In general, neglection of biodiversity reduction and weakening its condition will reduce soil carbon storage capacity.

Mycorrhiza is a symbiosis between plants and some soil-borne fungi which plays a crucial role in sustainable crop production, soil fertility and rangeland restoration. Due to such roles in plant growth, health improvement and soil aggregation enhancement, arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is becoming a tool in agricultural and environmental practices. To examine the potential impact of AM in rangeland restoration, the symbiosis effect of two AM species on some morphological and physiological characteristics of Agropyron elongatum was analyzed. The experiment was performed under greenhouse condition at Malayer University in a completely randomized design with two treatments and twenty replications. The morphological characteristics of plants i. e. stem length, wet and dry weight of aerial parts and also physiological characteristics, including photosynthetic pigments content, total phenol content and content of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus elements were measured. The results showed that both species of AM, especially R. intraradices, are highly competent to improve the morphological and physiological characteristics of A. elongatum. In other words, F. mosseae, enhanced morphological traits i. e. stem length, wet and dry weight of aerial parts in inoculated plants up to 318, 240 and 220 percent, respectively. Also, the aforementioned fungus, improved the content of phenol, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotene, up to 134, 131, 162, 181, 172, 178, 174 and 175 percent, respectively. On the other hand, R. intraradices promoted, stem length, wet and dry weight of aerial parts almost 474, 325 and 317 percent respectively. The incremental effects of R. intraradices on the content of phenol, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotene were about 153, 172, 163, 244, 337, 251, 246 and 250 percent. Therefore, R. intraradices, as a better partner for symbiosis with tall wheatgrass, is recommended for restoration of degraded pastures.