يك روش ابداعي به منظور تعيين وضعيت و ظرفيت مراتع در شمال كشور

A New Approach to Determine Condition and Capacity of Rangelands for Northern Iran

Classification of the rangelands condition used by range managers in Iran is based on climax theory in which the condition is assessed by the deviation from the climax. Due to the fact that in Iranian rangeland ecosystems the ecological studies, which show the degree of climax based on the floristic composition, was not carried out, the use of the above method has been encountered with difficulties scientifically and experimentally. In this approach, it was tried to propose a method called Pasture Value (PV), in which the floristic composition, quantitative analysis of vegetation and the use of palatability index were used for determination of the rangeland condition and capacity based on Iranian ecological situations. Primarily, results showed that the Pasture Value variations for different classes of the rangelands in northern Iran could have the following trend for a 120 day grazing period per year and can be used for classification accordingly: -For PV>51, the rangeland is excellent, with grazing capacity of 1.5-2 animal unit per hectare. -For 39