The Effects of Grazing on Change and Diversity of Natural Regeneration (A Case Study: Patom District, Kheyroud Forest)

There are natural and human threatening factors of forests sustainability. Deforestation human factors include grazing, fire, land-use, mining operation, wood smuggling and release of waste in the forest. There are very high harmful effects of livestock grazing in forest. In this study effects of livestock grazing were investigated on occurrence, diversity and changes in natural regeneration groups. These regions in this study consist of Bonjehbon and Patom corral were located in Patom district in the Kheyroud Educational and Experimental Forest which belonged to University of Tehran. For this purpose samples were collected by moving from each corral in four routes as transect until custom unit boundary. There were determined 2×2.5 (5 m2) plots in each regeneration group and was determined woody and herbage species in those plots. Diversity and evenness indices were calculated by using Ecological Methodology software at 500 m distances from corral. The results show that the most seedlings are Carpinus betulus and Acer velotinum which forms main species in this region. Graph change species showed reducing trend of the frequency of C.betulus and A.velotinum species while increased abundance of F.orientalis by increasing distance from corral. Rising pattern was observed in the diversity and evenness factors by increasing distance from corral. Dominant herbage species include Oxalis acetosella, Rubus fruticosus, Sambucus nigra, Euphorbia amygdaloides, Pteridium aquilinum, Oplismenus unulatifolios and dominant woody species include D.lotus, C.betulus, Crataegus Spp, Mespilus germanica, Acer cappadocicum, Parrotia persica and Prunus divaricata at closer distances to corral. High diversity of woody and herbage species showed severe degradation at the regions near the corral which has led to appearance invasive species.