Authors
Abstract
Our planet is threatened by nuclear wars, climate change and degradation of biodiversity. The first two dangers are relatively focused on, but biodiversity degradation is not properly considered yet. Species diversity is mostly composed of biodiversity and is considered an index of changes in ecosystems. Many of researchers think of higher species diversity as an index of bio-system’s stability. This research aimed to study parametric models of species diversity on range vegetations of study sites and relationship of ecological factors such as climate, soil and topography with diversity index. Four range sites were selected on different geographic areas in Isfahan province and randomly- systematic sampling was conducted to collect density data on plant species by quadrates along transects of each site during six years (2002-2007). Broken stick, log normal, logarithmic series and geometric series models were fitted for each site, and log normal showed to be the most proper model of distribution with P>0.05. LSD’s test indicated a significant different at ?=1% level between species diversity of steppe1 and semi-steppe2 sites. Log normal model seemed to be the most proper model in all sites. Generally, when this model is fitted successfully communities are considered stable. On the basis of some related studies with this research, Hill ( ) showed to be most proper index for species diversity in study sites, therefore effects of ecological factors such as soil, climate and topography on this index were studied by CCA method. Results of CCA revealed a high positive correlation between species diversity and percent organic matters of soil as well as precipitation levels and negative correlation with temperature.
Keywords
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