The role of soil properties on distribution of plant associations in the salt marshes around Urmia Lake

Salt marshes around Urmia Lake with an area of 353150 hectares located in the West and East Azerbaijan provinces. In this research, the physical and chemical properties of the habitat soil of plant associations in the salt marshes around Lake Urmia was determined after reduction lake level. The soil samples were taken from depths of 0-30 cm for herbaceous associations and 0-50 cm for the bush and shrub associations. Physicochemical features of the soil including texture, pH, EC, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, HCO3, CO3, SO4 and SAR were measured in the soil laboratory. The data were analyzed using principal component analysis method in PC-ORD4 software. The results showed that there is the special relationship between the distribution plant associations and soil properties. The most important factors in the separation of the associations were EC, Cl, Na and texture.