Predicting distribution habitat of Artemisia aucheri using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (Case study: Summer Rangeland of Baladeh, Nour)

The Identification of the affecting factors for establishment of native vegetation in area can help to manage rangelands correctly. Desirable habitat will have a significant impact on the survival and reproduction of species. The development of science of statistics and geographic information systems has been made to determine of the habitat prediction of plant species using modeling approaches. So, this study has been done by the purpose of prediction of habitat Artemisia aucheri map using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis in summer rangelands of Balade, Nour city in the Mazandaran province. For achieving to this purpose, the map of environmental variables (physiographic, soil and climate parameters), was prepared after sampling soil profiles and collecting climate variables information from the meteorological organization of Mazandaran province and physiographic maps, via GIS techniques in cell size of 10 x 10. Also; 30 sites were recorded as the presence of species with sampling classified – random. Ecological niche factor analysis counted as a profile model and it is one of the most frequently used techniques to generate species distribution map which uses species “presence-only” data. According to this results A.m.p, Aspect, Ec, TNV were used as influential environmental variables. Also, the evaluation of the model indicates a high accuracy model of the Ecological Niche Factor Analysis of the Artemisia aucheri by using Boyce index in the study area. Furthermore, the results of this study showed that Artemisia aucheri has sort of limited study area and tends to live in its own special habitat conditions.