Modeling of Iranian oak distribution in the southwest of Iran based on the presence-based approach Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt)‎

Understanding the dynamics and spatial distribution of plant species is an important strategy to conserve biodiversity. Modeling the distribution of plant species is one of the important methods in this field, which uses appropriate indicators to identify the relationships of different environmental variables and evaluate the habitat suitability for a species. In this study, in order to identify suitable areas for the presence of Iranian oak, which is one of the most important tree species in the Zagros forests in Iran, the model of maximum entropy (MaxEnt) was used. 16 environmental variables including topographic, climatic, and soil variables were used as independent variables and occurrences of Iranian oak were used as response variables. In order to evaluate the model, the area under the curve (AUC) was used. Jackknife method was used to determine and evaluate the importance of environmental variables. The results of this study showed that the MaxEnt model had a high efficiency with AUC: 0.98 and the mean annual temperature, elevation, and precipitation in the wettest quarter are more important. In addition, aspect and NDVI were the least important in model construction. In this study, the suitability map of Iranian oak in the study area was prepared, which can be a reliable source for managers in planning to protect and rehabilitate deforested forests in the study area.