M.H. Pezeshki; J. Motamedi; A. Alijanpour; M. Souri; M.R. Najibzadeh; H. Arzani
Abstract
It is important to determine the suitability of rangelands for the utilization of medicinal plants. The purpose of this study was to introduce some of the criteria and indicators, influencing the rangelands suitability for medicinal plants exploitation and to investigate the differences between the results ...
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It is important to determine the suitability of rangelands for the utilization of medicinal plants. The purpose of this study was to introduce some of the criteria and indicators, influencing the rangelands suitability for medicinal plants exploitation and to investigate the differences between the results of using different approaches of suitability determination. To this end, the suitability of the Arshad Chaman rangeland was evaluated in terms of the utilization of medicinal plants. The results showed that according to the limiting factor method (a common method of determining the suitability of rangelands), 2, 6 and 77 percent of rangelands had respectively good, moderate and low suitability and 15 percent were not suitable for utilization. The mathematical method (using hierarchical analysis process) showed 4, 26, and 45 percent of the rangelands as good, moderate, and low suitability, respectively, and 25 percent as inappropriate for exploitation. The application of the theoretical method (MSMPE) also showed that 39 and 61 percent of the rangelands had respectively good and moderate suitability. In general, it was observed that there were no significant differences between the classes of suitability obtained by the limiting factor and the mathematical methods; however, there was a difference between the classes obtained by the limiting factor and MSMPE methods, and different classes of suitability were obtained for a given area of rangeland in these three methods. Therefore, it is recommended to test the accuracy of the findings of the present study to achieve a practical result in different years in terms of climatic events and other locations with different physical properties. Overall, based on the combined results of different approaches and in terms of physical and environmental constraints, the study area had low suitability for the exploitation of medicinal plants. Therefore, to reduce the livestock pressure on rangelands and increase the diversity of medicinal plants, more attention should be paid to the other aspects of rangeland use such as beekeeping and free tourism.
J. Motamedi; E. Sofi Khajavi; A. Alijanpour; E. Sheidai Karkaj
Abstract
Study on the habitat characteristics of medicinal plants and estimating their production is one of the basic requirements for designing a future perspective document for utilization of by-products. Salep (Orchis palustris Jacq.) is one of the most important and highly valuable medicinal plants having ...
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Study on the habitat characteristics of medicinal plants and estimating their production is one of the basic requirements for designing a future perspective document for utilization of by-products. Salep (Orchis palustris Jacq.) is one of the most important and highly valuable medicinal plants having a significant distribution in the meadows of Targavar region of Urmia. Hence, among the meadows, six locations that were easier to reach and the distribution of Salep was more uniform were selected. In each location, using 60 plots of 60×25 cm2 that were randomly located within 10 plots with 10×1 m2, the number of Salep bases were counted and traits including crown cover percentage, plant height and tuber production were measured. Three composite soil samples from each location were randomly taken from the depth of root development of dominant species, and soil characteristics including sand, silt, clay, acidity, electrical conductivity, organic matter and total nitrogen were measured. The depth of groundwater (in each location) was considered as a criterion for moisture level and altitude, to analyze the relationship between habitat characteristics and plant traits. For this purpose, based on the calculated gradient length, the redundancy analysis (RDA) method was used as a linear method. The results of RDA showed that plant traits, especially tuber weight, were directly affected by the amount of organic matter, organic carbon, total nitrogen and clay percentage of the habitats. The mentioned traits are reversely related with altitude, groundwater depth and soil acidity of locations. In general, the Salep species more prefer low-altitude habitats such as alluvial plains with fertile, neutral acidity and heavy texture soils and high groundwater surface.