Quantifying the Fragmentation of Landscape as an Index for the Assessment of the Wildlife Habitat (Case Study: Protected Area of Jajroud)

Integrity and connectivity of habitats in protected areas is important for the plants survival and animals' populations. Investigating on the integrity of areas could help to interconnect islanded patches and preventing the negative impacts of fragmentations. This study aimed to quantify the fragmentations of the landscape to study the habitat of the important wildlife species in Jajroud protected area. To achieve this goal, after preparing area land use map using remote sensing and geographic information system techniques, the fragmentation elements were extracted to create fragmentation geometries. The acquired data were employed to study structure and the wild goat habitat integrity, wild sheep, the leopard and gazelle considering the landscape metrics. The results indicate that, the greatest increase in the fragmentation in landscape and between animal habitats has been happened due to the obstacles of the first geometry, which is included man-made lands and asphalt roads. Also, the greatest increase in fragmentation for wild sheep and gazelle occurred in first geometry, for wild goat in second geometry (garden) and for leopard in the fourth geometry (dam). Many conflicts pass through the sensitive species habitats of the wildlife, and the irreparable effects of conflicts will be more identified in the long term. The results of this research indicate that by analyzing landscape metrics in protected areas, it is possible to identify and prioritize the most important obstacles of maintaining the integrity of the habitat of different wildlife species; and also planning for the conservation of the habitat of the wildlife species will be prepared.