Identification & variance decomposition of some soil chemical and physical properties affecting medical plants distribution (Case Study: Melerd, SavadKooh)

Now days, Identification of effective environmental factors is of importance in Medical plant science. Among environmental factors, physical and chemical properties of soil have an important role on plants distribution. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between medical plant distribution and soil physical and chemical properties using Multivariate Analysis. Vegetation sampling was carried in forty 50m transects and Two hundred 1x1 m² plots were used to record species cover percentage using randomized systematic method. We found 22 medical plants. Also, 1 soil sample was taken in each transect (in 0-30cm soil depth). 11 physical and chemical properties of soil were measured in soil Lab. The results of DCA and CCA showed that there is a significant correlation (P value =0.001) between physical and chemical properties of soil with medical plants distribution. All of species were affected by aforementioned parameters. Among physical properties, particularly Sand and Clay have strongest effect on plant distribution. In chemical properties, pH, EC, Ca & Mg were more effective than other chemical properties. Finally using variation partitioning method we found that more variance in vegetation data was explained by Chemical soil factors (62.1%) than that by Physical soil factors (32.8%).