Forests of Iran

Abstract:The genus Cotoneaster is considered an important taxon in the woodlands of the Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian regions. Some species of this genus were reported from the Irano-Turanian alpine woodlands. Irano-Turanian mountainous wood and shrublands have a great importance in terms of water and soil conservation, biodiversity and plant richness. There is a lack of quantitative and qualitative statistics available for many of these ecosystems. This research focused on the ecology and phytosociology of Cotoneaster shrublands in central Alborz (Iran), with emphasis on C. kotschyi, an endemic drought-tolerant species. Data was collected based on the Braun-Blanquet method. TWINSPAN was used to analyse the vegetation data. Species-environment analysis was performed by CCA (Canonical Correspondence Analysis) and oneway ANOVA. Relevés were classified into three distinct groups regarding their floristic composition. By organizing the phytosociological table, a new subassociation was defined and named as Rhamno pallasii-Juniperetum excelsae cotoneastretosum kotschyi subass. nova. This syntaxon is distributed in the range of 2,200-2,430 m a.s.l. between two other groups, i.e. Cotoneastro nummulariis-Juniperetum excelsae and Rhamno pallasii-Juniperetum excelsae. Cotoneaster kotschyi ecologically is near to Rhamnus pallasii which is characteristic for Juniper communities on shallow soils and stony lands. Among the environmental variables, slope, soil texture, pH, lime and saturation percent are the most important distinguishing factors of this subassociation. So, the new syntaxon is found in the habitat with an average slope of 60%, sandy-loam soils and pH and lime percent less than other studied communities. The subassociation cotoneastretosum kotschyi has a higher amount of sand content compared to the other vegetation groups. Cotoneaster nummularius is an indicator of vegetation communities with relatively evolved soils. However, C. kotschyi grows in poor and shallow soils. C. kotschyi is a differential species which indicates the variability between the two main Alpine associations of the Irano-Turanian region. It is an appropriate species for plantation in the semi-arid mountainous areas. The ecological demands and the floristic composition of these plantations are determined in this article.

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“…and Amygdalus spp. (Sagheb-talebi et al, 2014). Species such as Cotoneaster spp., Berberis spp., Lonicera spp., Rhamnus pallasii Fisch.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology and phytosociology of Cotoneaster shrublands in Central Alborz of Iran

Ravanbakhsh¹,

Hamzeh’ee²,

Moshki³

2017

Dendrobiology

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“…Studies on spatial distribution of woody plants in arid regions such as eshnan shrubs which grow in Irano-Turanian zone, Iran, are still very scarce. Irano-Turanian vegetation zone includes 32.5% vegetation cover of Iran with aboat 4.5 million hectares area, stretching from southern slopes of Elborz Mountain ranges in the north to the slopes of Zagros Mountain ranges in the west and south and to the borders of Iran with Afghanistan, extending northwestwards to Azarbaijan (Sagheb-Talebi et al, 2014). Eshnan (Seidlitzia rosmarinus) shrub is a perennial halophytic shrub belonging to Chenopodiaceae family commonly observed in parts of this vegetation zone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eshnan (Seidlitzia rosmarinus) shrub is a perennial halophytic shrub belonging to Chenopodiaceae family commonly observed in parts of this vegetation zone. In addition to Iran, it grows in Middle East (Jordan, United Arabic Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan) and Central Asia (Hadi, 2009;Deymeh et al, 2012;Sagheb-Talebi et al, 2014). A majority of studies have been focused on the characteristics of this important species and impacts of environmental factors on its growth (Kurkova et al, 2002;Jafari et al, 2004;Abdollahi et al, 2006;Baghestani Maybodi and Zare, 2009;Zare Chahouki et al, 2010), its effects on soil and sand dunes stabilization (Amiraslani and Dragovich, 2011;Mahdavi Ardakani et al, 2011;Mahmoodi et al, 2013), as well as anatomical, physical and chemical properties of its wood (Safdari, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MODELING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ESHNAN (SEIDLITZIA ROSMARINUS) SHRUBS TO EXPLORING THEIR ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS IN DRYLANDS OF CENTRAL IRAN

Erfanifard

Khosravi

2015

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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ABSTRACT:Evaluating the interactions of woody plants has been a major research topic of ecological investigations in arid ecosystems. Plant-plant interactions can shift from positive (facilitation) to negative (competition) depending on levels of environmental stress and determine the spatial pattern of plants. The spatial distribution analysis of plants via different summary statistics can reveal the interactions of plants and how they influence one another. An aggregated distribution indicates facilitative interactions among plants, while dispersion of species reflects their competition for scarce resources. This study was aimed to explore the intraspecific interactions of eshnan (Seidlitzia rosmarinus) shrubs in arid lands, central Iran, using different summary statistics (i.e., pair correlation function g(r), O-ring function O(r), nearest neighbour distribution function D(r), spherical contact distribution function Hs(r)).The observed pattern of shrubs showed significant spatial heterogeneity as compared to inhomogeneous Poisson process (α=0.05). The results of g(r) and O(r) revealed the significant aggregation of eshnan shrubs up to scale of 3 m (α=0.05). The results of D(r) and Hs(r) also showed that maximum distance to nearest shrub was 6 m and the distribution of the sizes of gaps was significantly different from random distribution up to this spatial scale. In general, it was concluded that there were positive interactions between eshnan shrubs at small scales and they were aggregated due to their intraspecific facilitation effects in the study area.

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“…These forests are currently considered as degraded because of firewood production, land-use change (e.g. conversion of forest into agricultural land) and livestock feeding (Sagheb Talebi et al 2004). The vegetation of Zagros forests includes several rare plant species and many of them (186 species of tree, shrub and herbaceous) are endangered by anthropogenic activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation

Heydari

Pothier²,

Faramarzi

et al. 2014

Biodiversitas

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Heydari M, Pothier D, Faramarzi M, Merzaei J. 2014. Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed . Zagros Oak forests in the west of Iran have been degraded by anthropogenic activities during many years and to fight against this degradation, several management strategies have been implemented. The principal objectives this study were to identify the characteristics of the soil seed bank and the aboveground vegetation that were affected by degradation and short-term abandonment of human disturbances and evaluate the potential of the soil seed bank to restore the degraded types after short-term conservation management. For that, we compared three types of Zagros forest ecosystem with different management regimes: (i) Long term disturbed type as LDT (also used and disturbed at the present), (ii) Short-term abandonment of human disturbances as SAD (5 years without human disturbances) and an undisturbed control or C (iii). We selected three replicates or stands per type. In the aboveground vegetation (ABV), 115, 72 and 51 species were recorded in C, SAD and LDT types, respectively, whereas in the soil seed bank (SSB) flora, 33, 19 and 12 plant taxa were observed in C, SAD and LDT types, respectively. The percentage of annuals increased in ABV and decreased in SSB with increasing site degradation with human activities such as animal husbandry in the forest edges. The percentage of perennial and biennial herbs decreased in ABV and increased in SSB with increasing site degradation. The Shannon index of the SSB decreased with increasing site degradation. The average seed density in the SAD type was significantly larger than that of the LDT type. DCA analysis showed that the seed bank flora of SAD and LDT types were relatively similar and differed from that of the C type. This indicates that a full recovery of degraded type in the oak forest ecosystem in the Zagros region cannot be based only on the soil seed bank present at the beginning of the protection period while a more complete recovery may require a longer period of protection.

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Forests of Iran

Cited by 223 publications

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Ecology and phytosociology of Cotoneaster shrublands in Central Alborz of Iran

Ecology and phytosociology of Cotoneaster shrublands in Central Alborz of Iran

MODELING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ESHNAN (SEIDLITZIA ROSMARINUS) SHRUBS TO EXPLORING THEIR ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS IN DRYLANDS OF CENTRAL IRAN

Short-term abandonment of human disturbances in Zagros Oak forest ecosystems: Effects on secondary succession of soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation

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