Species diversity, life form, and chorotypes of plant species in sacred groves and surrounding silvopastoral woodlands of Northern Zagros, Iran

Biodiversity conservation is one of the most important challenges in forest ecosystems, especially where the local people's livelihood is highly dependant on that resources. Obtaining information on the potential and present condition of vegetation diversity is an important step to conduct successful conservation plans. In this study, we sampled 32 plots in sacred groves with no grazing or disturbance evidence and 90 plots in surrounding silvopastoral woodlands with a continuous grazing and pollarding history. We compared species diversity, life form, and chorotype of vegetation composition between these two stands and we determined the most important environmental gradients affecting this composition. The result indicates that sacred groves have significantly different species diversity, life forms, and chorology compositions than their surrounding woodlands. Out of 254 species identified in this study, 95 species are shared between both sites; 114 species are uniquely found in sacred groves that most of which have phanerophyte, hemicryptophyte, or cryptophyte life forms, and Irano-Turanian, Meditteranean, or Euro-Siberian Chorotypes. Surrounding silvopastoral woodlands contain 45 unique species as well as therophyte and chameophyte as the major life forms and Irano-Turanian, Meditteranean, or Saharo-Sindian chorotypes. Sacred groves as a network of less-disturbed stands, with higher canopy and litter cover without grazing and pollarding provide a better ecological condition for a variety of valuable plant species and considering their traditional protection by local people they play an important role in conserving biodiversity in northern Zagros.