Quantifying the Fragmentation of the Wildlife Habitat Using Landscape Ecology Approach (Case Study: Lar National Park and Varjin Protected Area)

The management of areas with landscape ecological approach helps us to have more integrated of considering completely management and also keep the area’s values.Integrity and connectivity of habitats in protected areas is important for the survival of plants and animals populations.Investigating on the integrity of these areas could help to interconnect islanded patches and preventing the negative impacts of fragmentations .This study aimed to quantify the fragmentations of the wildlife habitat in Lar national park and Varjin protected area to compare the status of the integrity of the habitat of leopard, wild sheep and wild goat species. To achieve this goal, land use maps of the areas were prepared using RS and GIS techniques and Wildlife habitat maps were also provided from Department of enviroment. In order to identify human factors influencing wildlife dispersion, the geometry of the fragmentation method was used. The results of this study indicated that by analyzing landscape metrics and geometries of fragmentation, we can identify the most important factors affecting the integrity of different species habitats, in order to protect them and preserve biodiversity. Results showed In Lar national park, soil paths, agriculture and dam factors, respectively, were identified in the creation of the fragmentation of the leopard, wild goat, wild sheep habitat. In the protected area of Varjin, agricultural use was identified as the most important factor affecting the habitat of wildlife.