Determination of the Desirability Habitat of Verbascum Stachydiforme L. by Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA)

Reports on the monitoring of rangelands of the country indicate that the variety of rangelands habitats is declining. In order to restore these ecosystems, it is necessary to study the desirability of habitats for rangeland species and to determine the most important environmental factors affecting their distribution. Hence, the desirability of mountainous habitats of Urmia for the species of Verbascum stachydiforme L. was considered as a valuable medicinal plant using the ecological niche factor analysis model (ENFA). Ecological niche factor analysis is a multivariate analysis method for studying the geographic distribution of species in the scale of presence data as an associated variable and environmental factors as an independent variable. For this purpose, the spatial data of the presence of the Verbascum stachydiforme (actual area) was recorded with GPS and the environmental factors (climate, topography and earth) related to the habitat were measured. By introducing climatological, topographic and earthy information layers and the map of the presence of species into the biomaper software, a potential habitat map was created. The results showed that of 2,220 hectares of studied habitats, 480 hectares (21.6%) are the potential habitat for Verbascum stachydiforme species. In this regard, the accuracy of the model based on the Boys Index and the use of the Medium Algorithm was evaluated 99%. Also, the compliance rate of the map prepared with the actual map of cover, according to Kappa coefficient, was 0.91. The results of this research can be used to identify areas susceptible to range improvments.