Mozaffari, H. (2014) A comparison of various methods for assessing rangeland health (case study: rangelands of Gremi). Masters thesis, University of Zabol.
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Abstract
Rangeland health is the main indicator of vegetation and soil health that is in balance with the ecological processes of the rangeland ecosystem. The aim of this study was to find the appropriate method to evaluate the health (the condition) of rangelands of Germi city, Ardabil province, northeastern of Iran. Two sites including enclosure (control) and evaluation (grazing) were chosen on the rangelands of the studied area with three replications. The three methods of determining the health of rangeland, including ecological indexes, four-factors, and six-factors were evaluated and compared. With the evaluation of ecologic indexes method, the deviation degree of 17 health indexes in the evaluation site to the control region was evaluated. In the four-factor method, the vegetation percent, species composition, freshness and vigor of plants and in the six-factor method, soil conservation, quantity of litter mass, species composition, and vegetal production were evaluated according to the standard tables in each of the two sites. Man-Whitney's non-parametric test was used to compare the control site with the evaluation site. The Kruskal-Wallis test was also used to compare the three methods of rangeland health evaluation within each site. The appropriate method was selected to determine the health of rangelands of the region with determining the accuracy and precision of each method. Based on the six-factor method, the final level of rangeland condition (the health) was high and poor in enclosure and evaluation site, respectively. The health of enclosure site was different from the health of grazing site by the six-factor method. Mean rank of the enclosure (23) and grazed (8) site had significant difference. According to the four factor method, the final level of the condition (the health) of rangelands was high and poor, in enclosure and evaluation sites, respectively. The condition (the health) of enclosure area was different from the health of the evaluation (under grazing) site, using the four-factor method. The mean rank of enclosure (23) and grazed (8) site was significantly different. The results of the comparison between the three methods of determining the rangeland health, showed that the higher rank of the ecological index method was 33.5, the rank of four-factor was 27, and the six-factor methods was 8 in enclosure area. Also, the rank of four-factor (31.43) and six-factor (29.5) methods in the evaluation site was higher than that in the ecologic indexes method (8). The ecological indexes method is considered to be the most appropriate method for determining the health of the rangeland of Germi city because of its higher accuracy and precision and less error value.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Rangeland condition, Ecologic indexes, Four-factor method, Six-factor method, Germi city |
| Subjects: | S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) |
| Depositing User: | admin admin1 admin2 |
| Date Deposited: | 14 May 2016 08:52 |
| Last Modified: | 14 May 2016 08:52 |
| URI: | http://eprints.uoz.ac.ir/id/eprint/580 |
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