Investigation on relationship between species richness and distribution of mammals with plant types in Shirkooh Wildlife Refuge

Habitat is one of the key parameters for species conservation. The first step for habitat management is to determine the factors affecting the distribution of species and species diversity.Plants, as the most stable and important organisms in any habitat, provide shelter and food for animal organisms and play an important role in life cycles. This research was conducted through field visits, interviews and the use of available statistics from the Wildlife Census in the year 2021. Some information on small mammals and plant type of Shirkuh no-hunting area was available from previous studies. There were 30 species of mammals and 19 species of plants in the Shirkooh Wildlife refug .The highest number of mammals was seen in the type (Artemisia sieberi- Noaeae mucronata- Stipa barbata). The number of species and the amount of richness indices in the species (Artemisia aucheri- Astragalus spp- Stipa barbata) was higher than other types. The results of Kruskalovalis test showed that the number of mammals, number of species and also the amount of Man-Henic index at the level of 0.01% and indices of species diversity and Alatalo at the level of 0.05% are significantly different from plant types. The pattern of distribution of animal species richness in large scale and in arid climate is influenced by various environmental factors and in this region the plant type, direction and latitude has been one of the important factors. The great diversity of plant types (type 19) has caused the richness of mammals in the region.