Capability Investigation of Carbon Sequestration in Two Species (Artemisia sieberi Besser and Stipa barbata Desf.) Under Different Treatments of Vegetation Management (Saveh, Iran)

The rangelands, as one of the largest dynamic biomes in the world, have very capabilities. Regulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide as the main greenhouse gases, is one of these cases. The attention to rangeland, as cheep and reachable resources to sequestrate the carbon dioxide, increases after the Industrial Revolution. Rangelands comprise the large parts of Iran as a steppic area. Rudshur (Saveh), as area index of steppic area, was selected under three sites including long-term exclosure, medium-term exclosure, and grazable area due to the capability of carbon dioxide’s sequestration of dominated species. Canopy cover’s percentage of two dominated species (Artemisia sieberi Besser and Stipa barbata Desf.) was determined via establishing of random 1 square meter plot. The sampling of above and below ground biomass style was obtained by complete random. After determination of ash percentage in the laboratory; conversion ratio of plant biomass to organic carbon was calculated by ignition method. Results of the paired t-test showed that the amount of carbon sequestration in above ground and underground biomass of Artemisia sieberi Besser and Stipa barbata Desf. is different in three regions. It, of course, has not any difference between under and surface ground’s biomass of Artemisia sieberi Besser in long-term exclosure. The independent t-test results indicate differences between underground biomass corresponding each other in the studied sites. Carbon sequestration in the Stipa barbata Desf. was totally more than Artemisia sieberi Besser. Altogether, the average sequestration of the long-term exclosure was 5.842gr/m², the medium-term exclosure was 4.115gr/m², and grazable area was 5.975gr/m² so that there is not valuable statistical difference in terms of total amount of carbon sequestration to three sites.