Vegetation community in relation to the soil characteristics of Rineh rangeland, Iran

Jafarian Jeloudar, Z.; Jafari, M.; Arzani, H.; Kavian, A.; Zahedi, Gh.; Azarivand, H.

Vegetation community in relation to the soil characteristics of Rineh rangeland, Iran

Authors

¹ Dept. of Rangeland and Watershed Management, Natural Resources Faculty, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Po. Box 737, Sari, Iran

² Natural Resources Faculty, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

³ Natural Resources Faculty, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran *Corresponding Author's E-mail: z.jafarian@sanru.ac.ir

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between soil properties and plant species to determine the most effective factors separating vegetation communities in Rineh rangeland. Three stratifying variables were selected including slop, aspect and elevation. The study area was partitioned by combining these classes to generate homogenous units. 1m2 quadrates were located at sampling sites in each homogenous unit randomly. Vegetation cover data were recorded using ordinal scale of Daubenmire cover-abundance scores in each quadrate. Soil samples were collected based on area from 0-15, 15-30 cm depths in each sampling site. Total nitrogen, organic matter, pH, total phosphorus, water retention capacity, permanent wilting point, available water capacity, potassium, water holding capacity, CaCO3, saturation moisture, bulk density, real unit weight and percentage of fine earth fragments (sand, silt and clay) were measured. Both classification and ordination techniques were employed including TWINSPAN classification, DCA and CCA. The TWINSPAN classification of the sample sites have resulted in ten groups. According to the results of DCA, length of gradient represented by axis 1 was >5 SD, indicating that CCA was the appropriate ordination method. CCA axis 1 was correlated to phosphorus (-0.460) in the first layer and phosphorus
(-0.493), sand (0.533) in the second layer while the CCA axis 2 was correlated to phosphorus (0.394), sand (0.533) in the second layer. The species-environment correlations are higher for the first three canonical axes, explaining 18% of the cumulative variances.

REFERENCES
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Jafari, M., Zare Chahouki, M.A., Tavili, A., Azarnivand, H., Zahedi Amiri, Gh. (2004). Effective environmental factors in the distribution of vegetation types in Poshtkouh rangelands of Yazd Province (Iran). J. Arid Environ. 56, 627-641.
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Kabir, M., Zafariqbal, M., Farooqi, Z.R., Shafiq, M. (2010) vegetation pattern and soil characteristics of the polluted industrial area of Karachi. Pak. J. Bot. 42, 661-678.
Kumar, S. (1996). Trends in structural compositional attributes of duneinterdune vegetation and their edaphic relations in the Indian desert. Vegetatio, 124, 73-93.
Li, X.R., Liu, X.M., Yang, Z.Y. (1998). A study on the relation of shrub community and environment in decertified steppe and steppefied desert of Ordos plateau. Chinese J. of Arid Res., 18, 123-130.
Lu, T., Ma, K.M., Zhang, W.H., Fu, B.J. (2006). Differential responses of shrubs and herbs present at the Upper Minjiang River basin (Tibetan Plateau) to several soil variables. J. Arid Environ. 67, 373-390.
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McCune, B., Mefford, M.J. (1999). PC-ORD 4: Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data. Version 4.10. MjM Software, Gleneden Beach, OR, USA.
McDonald, D.J., Cowling, R.M., Boucher, C. (1996). Vegetation-environment relationships on a species-rich coastal mountain range in the fynbos biom (South Africa). Vegetatio. 123, 165-182.
McGill, W.B., Figueiredo, C.T. (1993) Total nitrogen. In Carter, M.R. Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Lewis Publishers. Boca Raton, FL, pp. 201-211.
Monier, M., El-Ghani Abd., Amwe, W.A. (2003) Soil-vegetation relationships in a costal desert plain of southern Sinai, Egypt. J. Arid Environ. 55, 607-628.
Nelson, D.W., Summers, L.E., et al., Total carbon, organic carbon, and organic matter. In: Page, A.L. (Ed), Methods of Soil Analysis. (1982) Part 2. Chemical and Microbiological Properties, second ed. Agronomy Monographs, Madison, 9, 539- 579.
Oksanen, J., Minchin, P.R. (1997) Instability of ordination results under changes in input data order: explanations and remedies. J. Veg. Sci. 8, 447-454.
Page, A.L., Miller, R.H., Keeney, D.R. (1982) Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 2. Chemical and Microbiological Properties, second ed. Agronomy Monographs, ASA-SSA, Madison, WI. Palmer, M.W. (1993) Putting thing in an even better order; the advantages of canonical correspondence analysis, Ecology, 74, 2215-2230.
Shaukat, S.S., Khan, D., Qadir, S.A. (1981) on the vegetation dynamics of calcareous hillsaround Karachi. Pak. J. Bot. 13, 17-37.
Simard, R.R. (1993) Ammonium acetateextractable elements. In: Carter, M.R. (Ed.), Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Lewis Publishers, Boca Rton, FL, pp.39-42.
Sperry, J.S., Hacke, U.G. (2002) Desert shrub water relations with respect to soil characteristics and plant functional type. Funct. Ecol. 16, 367-378.
Yair, A., Danin, A. (1980) Spatial variation as related to the soil moisture regime over an arid limestone hillside, northern Negev, Israel. Oncology. 47, 83-88.
Zhang, K., Dang, H., Tan, Sh., Wang Zh., Zhang, Q. (2010) Vegetation community and soil characteristics of abandoned agricultural land and pine plantation in the Qinling Mountains, China. Forest Ecol. and Manag. 259, 2036-2047.

Keywords

References

Ali, S.M., Malik, N.R. (2010) vegetation communities of urban open species: Green belt and parks in Islamabad city. Pak. J. Bot, 42(2), 1031-1039.

Bouyoucos, G.J. (1962) Hydrometer method improved for making particle size analyses of soils. Argon. J.54, 464-465.

El Bana, M.I., A.S. Al-Mathnani., (2009) Vegetation-soil relationships in the Wadi Al-Hayat Area of the Libyan Sahara, Aust. J. Basic & Appl. Sci.3(2), 740-747.

El Bana, M.I., A.A. Khedr, P. Van Hecke, and J. Bogaert, (2002) Vegetation composition of a threatened hypersaline, Ecol.163, 63-75.

El Ghani, M.M. (1998) Environmental correlates of species distribution in arid desert ecosystems of eastern Egypt. J. Arid Environ. 38, 297-313.

He, M.Z., Zheng, J.G., Li, X.R., Qian, Y.L. (2007) Environmental factors affecting vegetation composition in the Alxa Plateau, China. J. Arid Environ. 69, 473-489.

Hirzel, A., and Guisan, A. (2002). Which is optimal sampling strategy for habitat suitability modeling? Ecol. Model. 157, 331-341.

Jafari, M., Zare Chahouki, M.A., Tavili, A., Azarnivand, H., Zahedi Amiri, Gh. (2004). Effective environmental factors in the distribution of vegetation types in Poshtkouh rangelands of Yazd Province (Iran). J. Arid Environ. 56, 627-641.

Jafarian Z., H.Arzani, M. Jafari, Gh. Zahedi, H.Azarnivand. (2008) Analyzing the

Jafarian Jeloudar et al., 149relationship between distribution or plant communities and climatic and physiographic factors using Classification and Ordination methods in Rineh Rangelands. Range. J.2(2), 125-140.

Kabir, M., Zafariqbal, M., Farooqi, Z.R., Shafiq, M. (2010) vegetation pattern and soil characteristics of the polluted industrial area of Karachi. Pak .J. Bot. 42(1), 661-678.

Kumar, S. (1996). Trends in structural compositional attributes of dune-interdune vegetation and their edaphic relations in the Indian desert. Vegetatio, 124, 73-93.

Li, X.R., Liu, X.M., Yang, Z.Y. (1998). A study on the relation of shrub community and environment in decertified steppe and steppefied desert of Ordos plateau. Chinese J. of Arid Res.. 18, 123-130.

Lu, T., Ma, K.M., Zhang, W.H., Fu, B.J. (2006). Differential responses of shrubs and herbs present at the Upper Minjiang River basin (Tibetan Plateau) to several soil variables. J. Arid Environ. 67, 373-390.

Lundholm, J.T., Larson, D.W. (2003) Relationships between spatial enviro-nmental heterogeneity and plant species diversity on a limestone pavement. Ecography. 26 (6), 715–722.

McCune, B., Mefford, M.J. (1999). PC-ORD 4: Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data. Version 4.10. MjM Software, Gleneden Beach, OR, USA. McDonald, D.J., Cowling, R.M., Boucher, C. (1996). Vegetation-environment relation-ships on a species-rich coastal mountain range in the fynbos biom (South Africa). Vegetatio. 123, 165-182.

McGill, W.B., Figueiredo, C.T. (1993) Total nitrogen. In Carter, M.R. Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Lewis Publishers. Boca Raton, FL, pp. 201-211.

Monier, M., El-Ghani Abd., Amwe, W.A. (2003) Soil-vegetation relationships in a costal desert plain of southern Sinai, Egypt. J. Arid Environ. 55, 607-628.

Nelson, D.W., Summers, L.E., et al., Total carbon, organic carbon, and organic matter. In:Page, A.L. (Ed), Methods of Soil Analysis. (1982) Part 2.Chemical and Microbiological Properties, second ed. Agronomy Monographs, Madison, 9, 539-579.

Oksanen, J., Minchin, P.R. (1997) Instability of ordination results under changes in input data order: explanations and remedies. J. Veg. Sci. 8, 447-454. Page, A.L.,

Miller, R.H., Keeney, D.R. (1982) Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 2. Chemical and Microbiological Properties, second ed. Agronomy Monographs, ASA-SSA, Madison, WI. Palmer, M.W. (1993) Putting thing in an even better order; the advantages of canonical correspondence analysis, Ecology. 74, 2215-2230.

Shaukat, S.S., Khan, D., Qadir, S.A. (1981) on the vegetation dynamics of calcareous hillsaround Karachi. Pak. J. Bot.13, 17-37.

Simard, R.R. (1993) Ammonium acetate-extractable elements. In: Carter, M.R. (Ed.), Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Lewis Publishers, Boca Rton, FL, pp.39-42.

Sperry, J.S., Hacke, U.G. (2002) Desert shrub water relations with respect to soil characteristics and plant functional type. Funct. Ecol. 16, 367-378.

Yair, A., Danin, A. (1980) Spatial variation as related to the soil moisture regime over an arid limestone hillside, northern Negev, Israel. Oncology. 47, 83-88.

Zhang, K., Dang, H., Tan, Sh., Wang Zh., Zhang, Q. (2010) Vegetation community and soil characteristics of abandoned agricultural land and pine plantation in the Qinling Mountains, China. Forest Ecol. and Manag.259, 2036-2047.