Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Iran has 86 million ha of natural grazing land. Over the last 50 years, most
of the semi-arid rangeland in Iran has been converted to cropland without an
equivalent reduction in grazing animal numbers. This shift has led to heavy
grazing pressure on rangeland vegetation. Iran is endowed with a rich diversity
of families, genera, and species (8,000 species) of plants. As a significant source
of the world's genetic resources and plant biodiversity, the consequence of
increased grazing pressure on Iran plant diversity is of great interest and has
been studied with a view to devising more sustainable grazing practices. The
dryland is suffering from increased desertification. More and more of the once
vegetated land is becoming barren and bare. This loss of vegetation not only
leads to desertification, but also contributes to global climate change because of
the decreased capacity of the environment to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
Exclusion can be considered as a management tool for restoring rangelands
vegetation. Exclusion of livestock either on a long term basis, or seasonally, is
a simple and inexpensive method of restoration and improvement of rangeland.
Appropriate management practices and adopting suitable restoration procedures
to enhance the level of rangeland renewal and restoration of rangelands, requires
enough information and knowledge on rangeland ecosystems. Since vegetation
coverage forms a substantial portion of natural ecosystems structure, therefore,
its studying and examining is the first step toward gaining scientific knowledge,
accurate understanding of phenomena and events taking place in the rangeland
ecosystems. In addition, rangeland managers observing the status of plants inside
exclusion and comparing it with outside the exclusion can assess the condition
of rangeland inside and outside of the exclosure.
Large-scale re-vegetation using both indigenous plants (mainly shrubs like
Haloxylon spp.) and imported species (principally Atriplex canescens ) has been
conducted as part of participatory projects designed to relieve poverty, improve
rangeland productivity and teach skills in nursery practice, plant propagation and
re-vegetation technology.
Keywords Biodiversity • Ecological zone • Physiogeography • Climate • Rain
shadow • Revegetation • Exclusion of grazing • Shrubs • Atriplex Haloxylon
Sand dunes
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Introduction
The Islamic Republic of Iran (I.R.IRAN) with area of about 1,648,000 km 2 is
located in the southwest of Asia and lies approximately between 25 ı N and 40 ı Nin
latitude and between 44 ı E and 64 ı E in longitude. Iran with an area of more than 1.6
million km 2 , Iran is the sixteenth largest country in the world. Placed in the Middle
East and surrounded by the Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan on
the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east, Oman sea and Persian Gulf on the
south and Iraq and Turkey on the west. Population of Iran is about 70 million and
the growth rate estimated as 1.7 % and it has 30 Provinces.
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