Salicornia herbacea is a sensitive species to seed shedding. In order to determine the effect of harvesting date on seed shedding, seed germination and seed oil production, an experiment was conducted in Gomishan Lagoon rangelands, Golestan province, Iran. Seed samples were harvested in twenty 1 m2 plots in 12 times since Nov 6th as the initial date of seed setting until Dec 21st as the final stage of seed maturity in 2019. Sampling was first carried out once a week and increased to every two days at the end of sampling dates. In each plot, the number of shrubs, visual evaluation of plant color changes from green to red, and brown coupled with the weight of the spilled seeds were recordedon each sampling date. Then, the required amount of seeds was randomly taken for the germination test and oil extraction. The obtained data were analyzed using PAST software. The results of analysis of variance showed significant differences between sampling dates on seed germination and oil percent (p <0.05). The highest and lowest germination rates with average values of 91% and 98% were obtained in the initial and final stages of harvesting, respectively. Also, the highest and lowest oil yield with average values of 19% and 16% was obtained in the middle and final stages of seed maturity. The results of multivariate analysis showed significant relationships between the seed shedding and plant color (green, red and brown) (p <0.05). According to the results, among the visible plant traits, the brown color (dryness) in up to 60% of the plants had the lowest shedding rate and was recommended as a good indicator for determining the suitable date to harvest Salicornia herbacea seeds. تفاصيل المقالة

Climate changes pose great threats to the main services of ecosystems such as food security, water security and health. This research was carried out in Haraz river basin rangelands, Mazandaran province in the north of Iran in 2015-2017 to analyze the perspectives of Haraz river basin (HRB) pastoralists about climate change. From 5236 local pastoralists, the sample size was consisted of 350 ones based on Cochran formula. This study was conducted in 130 custom units (Samane Orfi) in HRB. At first, a questionnaire with 13 main criteria and 31 indicators related to quality of life was prepared and filled by local pastoralists. Cronbach's alpha was varied from 0.72 to 0.88. Independent indicators were compared via Mann-Whitney U test using SPSS 16. Rangelands of HRB were divided into two parts due to having a wide variety of environmental factors and management. Most of pastoralists believed that climate changes occurred in HRB and also, there was a strong convergence between the perspectives of two pastoral groups (pastoralists of Baladeh and Larijan) with long-term trends in all weather stations about changes in climate characteristics. The results of Mann-Whitney U test showed that pastoralists perceptions of climate change impact on quality of life indicators differ significantly in terms of increased migration, anger, frustration, conflicts between the pastoralists, decreasing sympathy, reduced sense of responsibility between pastoralists, reduced pastoralists' participation in the range management actions, reduced effective participation in the improvement measures, increased distance between livestock pen and water resources (p<0.01) and reduced food intake regardless of health and management of livestock diseases and loss of social cohesion (p<0.05). It means that two groups believed that these indicators have been affected by climate changes with different weights. But no significant differences were observed for other indicators. The most important impact of climate changes from the perspectives of Baladeh pastoralists was on water quantity, migration, job insecurity, future expectancy and social conflicts with coefficient of variations of 0.207, 0.22, 0.297, 0.299 and 0.30, respectively with negative impacts. Larijan pastoralists believed that climate changes had the most important impact on migration, water quantity, future expectancy, social conflicts and job insecurity with coefficient of variation involving 0.26, 0.263, 0.277, 0.29 and 0.323, respectively with negative impacts. Although proper interpretation of regional climate change pattern is provided by pastoralists, extension services and increasing social awareness associated with global warming and climate changes should be prepared to cope with potential future threats of climate changes. تفاصيل المقالة

Land use change as the most important destructive factor in natural ecosystems is a globally problem that changes soil properties. Therefore, correct management and recognition of change aspects on each component of the ecosystem is necessary. This process causes land destruction, ecosystem instability, soil erosion, and more biological threats. Due to increasing land use conversion from rangelands to dryland farming, the effect of this phenomenon was studied on soil chemical properties in three land uses such as protected rangeland, dryland farming and abandoned dryland in Kian rangelands in Lorestan province, Iran in 2016. Soil properties including Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), and lime were compared between three land uses in two depths of 0-20 cm and 20-50 cm. Results showed that land use changes significantly affect these soil properties. In dryland farming, SOC was reduced in comparison to rangeland by 42% and 52% in the first and second depths, respectively. In contrast, the pH, EC and lime values were increased more than natural rangelands as 0.9%, 25.8%, 63.1% in the first depth, and 0.4%, 50%, 15.1% in the second depth, respectively. By stopping farming in abandoned dryland, the soil properties in abandoned dryland, were closer to rangeland than soil properties in dryland. These amounts in abandoned dryland ranked between rangeland and dryland farming. Our findings revealed that soil chemical properties were changed by conversion of rangeland to dryland farming via agricultural activities and human manipulation. Regarding these effects on soil properties and to keep ecosystems stability, attention has to be paid to land capability and prevention from wrong land uses. تفاصيل المقالة

Ferula pseudalliacea (Bitter asafetida) is an endemic medicinal plant grown in the center of Iran, which is used in pharmaceutical industries. There is less report about its habitat characteristics and distribution in Iran. So, this research was conducted to study the effects of topography and soil properties on distribution of this species in Yazd Province, Iran in 2016 and 2017. Two habitats (Chenarnaz and Borooieh) were selected and data were collected for vegetation cover and soil parameter using random systematic methods. All data were analyzed in SPSS software. The results indicated that this plant often grows in mountainous regions with calcareous formation. Its phenological activities are extremely under the effect of climate conditions. This species grows in all aspects and slopes higher than 25%. In Chenarnaz, the highest canopy covers was in north aspect (3.13%) and the lowest canopy covers was obtained in south aspect (1.65%). Similarly, the highest amount of canopy covers was observed in north aspect (2.55%) and the lowest one was in south aspect (1.65%) in Borooieh. 2400-2500 m altitude had the highest amount in two habitats, So that the amounts were obtained in Chenarnaz 3.42% and in Borooieh 2.55%. There were significant differences for many parameters between two habitats. The higher mean values of canopy cover percent, density, plant area, collar diameter, thousand seed weight and soil parameter as saturated moisture, silt, pH and organic matter were obtained in Chenarnaz and the highest sand percent and EC were obtained in Borooieh habitat. The results showed that this species grows in soils with lime amount between 55.92% to 58.27% and sandy loam texture, acidity of 8.09 to 8.23 and organic matters of 1.20% to 1.97%. The results of this study can be noticed for proper range management, conservation and development of this valuable species in such conditions. تفاصيل المقالة

The indigenous knowledge of shepherds about the different components of the plant fuel, ways of their classification and their contribution to fire behavior helps range managers to understand fire and effective management of the rangelands. The present research aims to document the indigenous knowledge of shepherds in this regard. For this purpose, a semi-structured interview in 2020 with 17 shepherds of semi-steppe rangelands of Khalkhal in northwestern Iran was performed and data were analyzed by the note-taking method and the categorization method. Given the knowledge of shepherds, plants were categorized into three groups of carriers, retardant, and burnable. They consider the morphological traits, type and composition of vegetation, climatic factors and physiography to be effective in creation and spread of fire. Shepherds' controlled fires are carried out with the aim of removing thorny plants to increase the length of the green period of the plants, to graze more livestock, to increase the income, to destroy the old seedlings and to rejuvenate the rangeland. Uncontrolled and deliberate fires are conducted with the aim of destroying state property, protesting against fines, unhealthy competition and conflicts between individuals, which reduce the winter forage of livestock and land grabbing. The time required for the rehabilitation of the rangelands was expressed after 6-7 years after fire. Practical suggestions could be used in participatory management system (shepherds and officials from natural resources management) for controlling fuel density using different grazing systems. تفاصيل المقالة

هدف اصلی این تحقیق بررسی رویشگاه (فعلی و قبلی) کرفس کوهی بانام علمی Kelussia odoratissima Mozaff. و تعیین عوامل اکولوژیکی که پراکنش آن را در منطقه کهگیلویه محدود می‌کند، می‌باشد. ابتدا نقشه توپوگرافی منطقه تهیه و در محیط GIS وارد گردید. با استفاده از DEM نقشه ارتفاع، شیب و جهت تهیه شد. به‌طور مشابه نقشه‌های کاربری اراضی، ارزیابی اراضی، تبخیر، دما و بارندگی منطقه تهیه شد. 12 ترانسکت تصادفی (6 ترانسکت در رویشگاه فعلی(توده کرفس) و 6 ترانسکت در رویشگاه قبلی(زیستگاه) کرفس) مستقر گردید. 440 پلات 2 متر 2 متر در امتداد ترانسکت ها برداشت شد. درصد پوشش تاجی و تعداد پایه کرفس کوهی به همراه درصد تاج پوشش و تعداد پایه سایر گونه‌های همراه در هر پلات تعیین گردید. 12 نمونه خاک به‌طور تصادفی در عمق‌های مختلف در دو محل رویشی برداشت گردید تا پارامترهای خاک شامل کربن آلی، عمق و بافت خاک تعیین گردند. مقادیر متناظر هر پلات از نقشه‌های تهیه‌شده استخراج و به همراه سایر اطلاعات زمینی به محیط صفحه گسترده وارد شد. آنالیز رگرسیون نا پارامتری برای تعیین ارتباط بین پارامترهای بیوفیزیکی کرفس کوهی و پارامترهای محیطی انجام شد. آنالیز واریانس به‌منظور مشخص کردن تفاوت متغیرهای مورداندازه‌گیری بین محل رویش فعلی و قبلی کرفس صورت پذیرفت. نتایج نشان داد که تفاوت معنی‌داری در سطح 5 درصد در خصوص پارامترهای محیطی دو محل توده کرفس و زیستگاه کرفس وجود ندارد. به نظر می‌رسد عواملی غیر از عوامل اکولوژیک و بیولوژیک (تأثیر گونه‌های همراه)، نظیر عوامل انسانی تأثیر بر حضور و عدم حضور کرفس کوهی داشته است. تفاصيل المقالة