Study of plant diversity and floristics in the westernmost Hyrcanian forests
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Study of plant diversity and floristics in the westernmost Hyrcanian forests Aiuob Moradi1 • Saeed Afsharzadeh1 • Behnam Hamzehee2 • Valiollah Mozaffarian2
Received: 22 January 2017 / Accepted: 15 October 2018 Northeast Forestry University 2019
Abstract In this floristic study from sea level to timberline in the westernmost Hyrcanian forests, 1302 plant specimens within 166 releve´s were identified. There were 649 taxa of vascular plants belonging to 349 genera and 95 families. Poaceae had the most taxa (61), followed by Asteraceae (59), and Rosaceae (53). Genera with the greatest species richness included Alchemilla and Carex, each with 16, Veronica with 15, and Poa, Geranium and Rumex each with 9. Hemicryptophytes (43.3%) were the dominant life form. Chorological analysis showed 31.2% Euro-Siberian elements. Of the total number of species, 10.9% (70) were endemic or subendemic to Iran. Species diversity indices at different altitudes were also compared. Keywords Hyrcanian forests Flora Chorotype Plant diversity
Project funding: University of Isfahan, Education and Postgraduate Studies. The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com Corresponding editor: Zhu Hong.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-019-00949-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Saeed Afsharzadeh [email protected] 1
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2
Botany Research Department, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extention Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran
Introduction Flora studies, including species lists, life-form spectra, geographical distribution, and identification of threatened species, are useful for evaluating ecological issues such as biodiversity, growth capacity, conservation and regulation (Kargar-Chigani et al. 2016). Biodiversity is an important aspect of life, especially with regards to climate and landuse. Species diversity plays a vital role in the persistence of ecosystem processes and services relative to severe landuse pressures and changing environmental conditions (Hooper and Vitousek 1997; Mahdavi et al. 2013). Notably, a reduction in biological diversity will lead to a reduction in ecosystem-level processes (Zobel et al. 2006; Mahdavi et al. 2013). Regional patterns of species richness are a consequence of many interacting factors such as plant productivity, competition, geographical area, historical or evolutional development, regional species dynamics, regional species pools, environmental variables, and human activities (Woodward 1988; Palmer 1991; Eriksson 1996; Zobel 1997; Criddle et al. 2003; Hua 2004). Hyrcanian (Caspian) temperate deciduous forests extend from Talesh in the Azerbaijan Republic in the west to Golestan National Park in Golestan Province in Iran in the east, and constitute a green cover across the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountain system which sha
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