A floristic survey of the Hyrcanian forests in Northern Iran, using two lowland-mountain transects

Abstract

We investigated the floristic composition of the Hyrcanian forests and the related forest-steppe ecotone in Northern Iran by using two long ecological transects, from lowland to upper mountain areas. The study was conducted during 2008 and 2009 and yielded the identification of 395 plant taxa belonging to 233 genera and 78 families. Dicots with 300 taxa were the richest groups of the flora, followed by monocots with 75 taxa, pteridophytes with 18 species, and gymnosperms with two species. The largest families were Asteraceae (33 taxa); Rosaceae (32 taxa); and Poaceae (30 taxa), and the most diverse genera included Carex (15 taxa); Alchemilla (7 taxa); and Poa, Geranium and Acer (6 taxa each). Hemicryptophytes were the most dominant life forms in the area (40 %); followed by geophytes (31.4 %); phanerophytes (15.4 %); therophytes (11.4 %); and chamaephytes (1.8 %). Phytogeographically, Euro-Siberian/Irano-Turanian elements (86 taxa, 21.8 %) and Euro-Siberian elements (85 taxa, 21.5 %) were the most common chorotypes in the area. Out of 395 taxa, 66 taxa (16.7 %) were endemics and subendemics in Iran, of which 26 taxa were exclusively endemics of Iran. According to the IUCN Red List Categories, 48 threatened plant taxa were found in the study area. Plant diversity, life form, and chorotypes in the current study were compared with similar transect studies in other areas of the Hyrcanian forests and in different altitudinal belts, using Sørenson similarity indices. Floristic composition of the surveyed transects demonstrated almost 50 % similarity between them.

The edge of two worlds: A new review and synthesis on Eurasian forest‐steppes

“…The peripheral areas of central Anatolia, east and southeast Anatolia, south and east Caucasus, Abdulaziz Mts, Zagros Mts, Persian Plateau, Alborz Mts, Kopet Dag, Badkhyz Mts, central Afghan Mts (Turkey, South Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southwest Russia, northeast Syria, northeast Iraq, Iran, south Turkmenistan, Afghanistan; Assadi, ; Akhani, ; Ambarlı et al., ; Breckle, ; Ҫolak & Rotherham, ; Kürschner & Parolly, ; Memariani et al., ; Merzlyakova, ; Nakhutsrishvili, ; Naqinezhad, Zare‐Maivan & Gholizadeh, ; Popov, ; Ravanbakhsh, HamzeH'Ee, Etemad, Marvie Mohadjer & Assadi, ; Ravanbakhsh & Moshki, ; Uğurlu, Roleček & Bergmeier, ;Volodicheva, ; Zohary, ) (Figure g).…”

Diversity in antioxidant properties and mineral contents of Allium paradoxum in the Hyrcanian forests, Northern Iran

“…The populations of the plant are obvious during late February to early April in B I O D I V E R S IT A S 16 (2): 281-287, October 2015 282 the Hyrcanian forests. The Hyrcanian forest is a temperate deciduous forest ecosystem in the southeastern part of the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot, that are located in three northern provinces of Iran, namely, Guilan, Mazandaran and Golestan with a total surface area of 1.84 million hectares (Bobek 1951;Takhtajan 1986;Naqinezhad et al 2015).…”

Elevational gradient and vegetation‐environmental relationships in the central Hyrcanian forests of northern Iran

“…Numerous publications describe the flora (Akhani et al , Naqinezhad et al ), phytosociology, vegetation ecology (Akhani and Ziegler , Hamzeh'ee et al , Naqinezhad et al , Eshaghi Rad and Banj Shafiei , Shakeri et al , Naqinezhad et al , ), palynology (Ramezani et al ) and soil seed banks (Esmailzadeh et al ) of the Hyrcanian forest. However, knowledge of site–vegetation relationships along the long lowland–upper mountain gradient of this forest is scarce.…”