Evaluation of Nearest Neighbor Distance Method. for Biodiversity Estimation in Arasbaran Forest Ecosystem

Species diversity protection will ensure the protection of natural processes and ecological values. Appropriate information on the condition and location of endanger species will facilitate the management and conservation of forest areas. The present study was conducted in Arasbaran forests for the purpose of evaluating two sampling methods including circular sampling (1000 m2 area) and the nearest neighbor method. Richness, Evenness, Shannon-Wiener and Simpson diversity indices were calculated in BiodiversityR package in the R software environment and the comparison of the means was performed with independent t-test. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the sampling methods and the 100% inventory method in terms of richness, evenness and diversity indices (p≤ 0.05). All diversity indices showed high values of species diversity in the study area. Species importance value (SIV) for tree species showed the high values of this index, so that Acer campestre as the main species in the region. According to the results of this research, the nearest neighbor distance sampling method can be used as an efficient sampling method for estimation of biodiversity in the studied forest ecosystem.