Influence of forest fragmentation on plant species composition and distribution in Northern slopes of Kermanshah forests

The aim of this research is to study the influence of forest fragmentation on plant species composition and distribution in the northern aspects of Kermanshah oak forests. Three patches of oak forests with similar physiographic conditions were selected and vegetation data were sampled at 0, 25, 50, 100 and 150-meter intervals along three transects which was located in a distance of 200 m apart from each other. Cluster Analysis and Deterended Correspondence Analysis were used to categorize and investigate the trend of vegetation variation in different patches. Also, Indicator Species Analysis accompanied with Monte Carlo test was used to determine the characteristic species in the area. In this study, 113 plant species belonging to 97 genera and 27 families were identified., Asteraceae family with 21 species (18.58 percent) showed the highest number of plant species Two categories of sample plots, i.e. forest-edge (zero and 25 m) and inside-forest (50, 100 and 150 m) were separated And it was recognizes that the distance from the patch edge was the most important factor on distribution the distribution of these groups. Characteristic species of the first group are: Aegilops umbellulat, Alyssum menicoides, Anthemis hyalina, Calendula persica, Echinops kermanshahanicus, Euphorbia macroclada, Gundelia tournefortii, Lens orientalis, Onobrychis lunata, Picnomon acarna, Sysymbrium damascenum, Tragopogon longrostris, Verbascum pseudo-digitalis, Vicia assyriaca, V. narbonensis and for the second group: Alyssum marginatum, Anagalis arvensis, Galium aparine, Geranium tuberosum, Phlomis persica, Scandix pectin-veneris, Stipa barbata, Taeniatherum crinitum, Ziziphora capitata, Crataegus azaralous, and Quercus branttii.