The impact of forest road on plant species diversity, organic matter and carbon content (Case study: Patom district of Kheyroud forest)

Roads have different advantages and disadvantages and also various effects on their adjacent environment. All these effects are studied by the science of road ecology. In this study the impact of roads on species diversity, organic matter and Carbon content was investigated. The current research was carried out in Patom district of Educational and Experimental forest of Kheyroud. At 10 points along the road-with distance of 100 m from each other- toward fill slope and cut slope, we established a 100-meter- transect perpendicular to the road, within which we consider ten 10×10 m plots to record the tree species, ten 2×2 m plots to record the herbal species and ten 0.5×0.5 m plots to sample soil and tree litter. According to the results, the road did not have any significant impacts on species diversity, organic matter and carbon content. The comparison between fill slope and cut slope shows some significant differences just in some distances. To conclude, the studied road is almost narrow and has limited traffic. Moreover, given that this road is constructed by forest engineers, unnecessary cut and fill operations are avoided, so the road is in balance with nature as much as possible and the habitat fragmentation is not so considerable. All these items can be numerated as important factors of moderating the negative effects of this road compared to previous studies, in which the roads are wider and less in balance with nature.