Effects of Rangeland Landuse Changing into Dryland from Herbal Species Diversity Viewpoint (Case Study: Rangelands in Dehgolan City, Kurdistan)

Subject Areas : environmental management

Hamid Rahmani ¹ (MSc in Environment Science, Habitats and Biodiversity, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. * ( Corresponding Author))
Younes Asri ² (Research Associate Professor, Department of Botani, Reseach Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran, Iran.)
Mehdi Ramezani ³ (Assistant Professor, Environment and Energy Faculty, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.)
Nematallah Khorasani ⁴ (- Professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.)
Hosein Maroofi ⁵ (Research Instructor, Research Agricultural and Natural Resources Center, Kurdistan Province, Iran.)

Received: 2015-01-04 Accepted : 2015-07-14 Published : 2016-11-21

Keywords: Herbal Species Diversity, Species Evenness, Species richness, Range Plants, Kurdistan province,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: The natural rangeland changing into dryland is one of the important agents for destruction of rangelands in Iran. The destruction and landuse conversion can impress various constituents of rangeland ecosystems. This research mainly attempts to investigate the vegetation transitions in species diversity in the years following destruction. Method: The natural rangelands (key area) and the converted adjacent lands into drylands (critical area) were selected for sampling by using random-systematic plan in Dehgolan of Kurdistan Province. Three transects along a slope with 100 m length for each and 50 m distance between them were set at two herbal mentioned areas. Based on minimal area method, five quadrats of one square meter area were set along each transect. The species list with their self-relative frequency was registered in quadrats. The species evenness based on four numerical indices including Simpson's evenness, Camargo, Smith-Wilson and Modified Nee, the species richness according to two indices including Jackknife estimate and Rarefraction method and the species diversity by four indices including Shannon-Wiener, Brillouin, McIntosh and Simpson were analyzed and compared together. Results: 26 herbal species at the natural rangeland and 18 species at the land converted into dryland were gathered. The results obtained from data analysis showed that species diversity and richnessof plants have had degradation and species evenness has dad enhancement at the land converted into dryland. However, statistical T-Test did not show a significant difference between the two mentioned fields. Generally, it was concluded that rangeland changing into dryland reduced the species diversity of range plants and its statistical non-significance was of multiple reasons.

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