Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• R. Heydari ¹
• M. Khodagholi ²
• M. Zarean ¹

¹ M.Sc. in Climatology, Payam Noor University, Esfahan, Iran

² Climatology, Isfahan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Agriculture and natural resources are strongly dependent on weather and climate; therefore, climate variation and its changes have a key role on production rate and sustainability. The goal of this study was to investigate and determine the most important climatic elements affecting the distribution of Teucrium orientale L. as well as bioclimatic zoning of this species in Isfahan province. Initially, a database of 16 climate variables, which were more important in connection with plant ecology, was established during a 40-year statistical period (1970-2009). To decrease the dimensions of data matrix, factor analysis method with Varimax Rotation was used, and for the bio-climate zoning of Teucrium orientale L., Ward’s Hierarchical Clustering method was applied. As a result, five bioclimatic zones, based on the heights of the province, were identified and labeled. To investigate the climatic variables spatially, the results of the factor analysis were entered into GIS environment and the zoning of these factors was done. The results of this study showed that the first four factors explained 93.6% of the primary variation. These factors included precipitation, frost day, radiation, and wind speed, showing 42.43%, 31.93%, 10.40%, and 8.83% of variations, respectively.

Keywords

• Teucrium orientale L
• factor analysis
• cluster analysis
• zoning