Evaluation of the effects of climate factors on distribution of the habitats of Astragalus adscendens in Isfahan province

To investigate the effect of climatic factors on distribution of Astragalus adscendens in rangelands of Isfahan province, 57 climatic variables with most importance in terms of ecology of this species were selected. Data were tested by factor analysis in SPSS 16. The maps of Isfahan climatic factors in the factor analysis were drawn and integrated with the map of vegetation types and digital elevation map to identify the habitat of Astragalus adscendens. According to the results, the first three factors could explain 90.2% of total variance in selected variables as follows: temperature, precipitation, and radiation and wind, with 47.4, 30, and 12.8% of variance, respectively. The three climate factors were compared with the average of climate elements in the habitats of Astragalus adscendens and the areas without this species. Results showed that the areas with an altitude of 2400 m which have approximately 50% relative humidity, with more than 400 mm of rainfall per year and relative radiation are considered as the main habitat for Astragalus adscendens. The tolerance of this species to climatic factors is limited.