Investigation on Physiographic Condition of Wild Pistachio Habitats in Zagros Forests, Iran using GIS

The first step in protecting and preservating forest ecosystems is identification of genetic reservoirs. Wild pistachio (Pistachio mutica F & M) forests are widely distributed throughout most parts of Zagros Mountain Ranges of Iran. These plants have edible fruits with extractable juice usable in pharmaceuticals, gums, paints, pesticides, pastes, perfumes and mineral oil industries. The habitats of this species in Salas babajani region, approximately with total area of 24000 ha can be observed in four open forest types including Quercus spp – pistacia spp, pistacia spp- Acer monpessulanum, pistacia spp – Amygdalus spp and pistacia spp. In this research, regarding the distribution area, elevation, slope and aspect characteristics of wild pistachio, different maps were provided using GIS, then were overlaid the map of distribution area of wild pistachio with maps of elevation, slope and aspect. The results obtained from statistic analysis, showed that 93.26% of habitats of wild pistachio have been located in 20-60% slope range, 85.7% are mostly distributed between 1000 and 2000 m.a.s.l and 43.9% have been located in the southwestern and northeastern aspects. The results obtained from one way variance analysis and Dunnet’s T3 test; indicate significant difference between the distribution area of wild pistachio in different aspects and also different slope classes but no significant difference between the distribution areas of wild pistachio in different elevation classes.