A Study of Floristic, Functional, and Relative Diversity of Plant Families in Darmian and Sarbisheh Protected Area

Protected areas (PAs) are one of the effective tools for biodiversity conservation. ‘Darmain Hunting Prohibited Region’ was introduced as ‘Darmian and Sarbisheh Protected Area’ in 2008. This region is suitable for breeding wild sheep due to its numerous hills and diverse vegetation. This area with about 80000 hectares is located 68 kms east of Birjand, among the three cities of Darmian, Sarbisheh, and Birjand. Its minimum altitude is 2100 meters above the sea level and its maximum altitude is 2870 meters. The aim of this study was to identify the genus and plant species and to determine their biological forms and geographical distribution. The purpose of this study was to identify the plant family and species and to determine the life forms and plant geographical distribution in the study area. Also, the Functional Diversity, Relative Diversity (RDi), and Family Importance Value (FIV) were determined. The results showed that there were 26 plant families, 69 genera, and 94 plant species in the rangelands of this protected area. The largest families were Asteraceae (22 species) and Poaceae (8 species). The life form consisted of 45% Hemicryptophytes, 20% Therophytes, 17% Chamaephytes, 10% Geophytes, 7% Phanerophytes, and 1% Parasite. In terms of geographical distribution, 61 species with the most abundance (65%) belonged to the Irano-Turanian region and 1 species with the least abundance (1%) belonged to the Euro-Siberian region. In terms of the functional diversity, the plant species based on vegetative form (76% Forb, 17% bush, and 7% shrub) and life cycle (81% perennial and 19% annual) were classified. Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Apiaceae families with 65.18%, 21.38%, 16.72%, and 13.11% Family Importance Value (FIV) were the most important families in this area, respectively.