نشریه محیط زیست طبیعی
سال شصت و هشتم شماره 3 (پاییز 1394)

The Mountains as the other Natural Environment are the main purposes for nature based tourism such as sport tourism and have a finite capacity for recreation development which differs from one place to another and naturally causes different type of tourism’s development. Therefore land Suitability is very important before Tourism planning. Some charactristics like geomorphological، biological and unique natural landscapes make Karaj-Callous road as one of the most popularity tourism region in Iran and study about it ’s capacity and limitation and do planning could cause sustainable tourism. In this regard current research with the goal introducing the best place for development Nature-based Tourism activities in mountain ecosystem، using Spatial Multi Criteria Evaluation and prepare criteria for some sport activities including Mountaineering، Rock climbing، Trekking، Slope walking، Mountain biking، Horse riding and Canyoneering. In order to illustrating the relationship between the objectives and criteria، a Hierarchy structure defined. The criteria weighted by the Analytical Hierarchy Process and Expert Choice software، maps of each criterion combined together by Weighted Linear Combination in GIS for provide suitable places for tourism activities. Criteria was includin geomorphological caractristics (soil، rock features and topography). Results show about 58% of study area has capability for development a variety sport tourism activities in mountain.

: Heavy metals are chemical pollutants characterized by their toxicity, stability, bioaccumulation and biomagnification. They might accumulate in aquatic organisms, transfer through food chain and enter into human body. Therefore, the study of their accumulation in the edible aquatic species has been a very important part of ecological and monitoring investigations. Astacus leptodactylus is a benthic species, which is sedentary and omnivores, and is recently becoming one of the food sources in Iran. Samples were randomly purchased from the Tehran market. Their length, weight and sex were determined. The concentrations of lead, chromium, copper and zinc in muscle tissues were obtained using wet digestion and atomic absorption spectroscopy (Perkin Elmer, USA). Results were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS 19. No correlation was found between weight and length with the metal concentrations. There was also no correlation between sex and the concentration of toxic elements; however sex found to have significant correlation with the concentration of essential elements. There was significant differences between concentration of metal; and the pattern of accumulation of the metals was Zn > Cu > Cr ≥ Pb. Comparison of the metal concentrations with standard values indicated that copper and zinc concentrations are lower than concentrations allowed by WHO ​​and ANHMRC, while lead concentration was around the allowed levels. Because of very low consumption of this aquatic organism in Iran and a decrease observed in the concentrations of toxic metals after cooking, the consumption of this seafood is not harmful to human health. However, it is necessary to take safety precautions, so that the concentrations of the metals do not increase in aquatic ecosystems and in turn in seafood.

Increasing patch edges in natural habitats, as a result of habitat fragmentation, are a major threat for wildlife populations, especially avifaunal communities. Habitat edges provide different conditions compared to the core area which can directly or indirectly cause changes in species number, population and composition. This fact will demand a dissimilar management strategy. This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the edge effect on avifaunal richness and abundance in Khoshkeh-Daran natural monument. Bird records took place using point sampling method with infinite radius. Bird observation was recorded in mid spring 2009 daily from dawn till 9:30 am and was stopped during bad weather conditions. Vegetation cover was recorded in each 1000 m2 plot with a radius of 17.85 meters from the center where the observer was located. To study the significance of difference, between abundance and richness of avifauna among the edge and core of the patch, analysis of variance was applied. We used Canonical Correspondence Analysis to help us understand the relationship between bird communities and habitat variables. Results show a significant difference in abundance and richness along different distance from the center of the patch decreasing toward the edge. Trees and shrubs density, snags, safer environment and the presence of permanent lagoons (which will cause in tree falls) in core of the patch can be considered as reasons for these differences.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are among the major organic environmental pollutants whose toxicity and carcinogenicity effects have raised great concerns while the numerous available physical and chemical methods to remove petroleum hydrocarbons are rarely employed due to their extreme costs and harmful side effects, biological methods, including phytoremediation, have attracted wide attention during the recent years. The current study used sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) to decrease petroleum hydrocarbon content of contaminated soil around Isfahan Oil Refinery (Isfahan, Iran). It also assessed the concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons and petroleum-degrading bacteria at different depths of soil following phytoremediation. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes (20 cm in diameter and 130 cm long) were employed for phytoremediation. In each pot, hordeum or sorghum seeds were separately sown approximately 1-2 cm below the soil surface. Thirteen weeks after sowing of the plants, soil columns were sampled at 25, 50, 75, and 100 cm depths and concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons and number of oil-degrading bacteria was determined. Statistical analyses indicated the two plants to reduce the concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons to a significantly higher extent (23%-35%) than the control treatment Obviously, such an effect was only detected in depths where plant roots penetrated (especially 0-50 cm), i.e. the absence of roots in deeper parts of the soil column (50-100 cm) was accompanied by lower number of oil-degrading bacteria and higher concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons. Accordingly, future studies are recommended to investigate the efficacy of landfarming and stimulation and injection of oil-degrading microorganisms in eliminating deep soil contamination.

Nowadays the methods that for determining the optimal planting crops are used often in order to increase farmer's prosperity and Take steps to maximize their profits, while the neglect of damaging effects environmental can adverse consequences and a lot of problems for future generations of mankind create. Therefore, choice a method that could help saves the environment multiple manager's goals to achieve to suited cultivation patterns leave in a model is necessary and important. Therefore in this study to achieve the objectives comprehensive above, especially in determining the optimal pattern planting Rudbar Alamot Western Qazvin Province and also reducing water pollutions river basin Shahrud that resulting from the more using of chemical fertilizers Lexicographic goal programming was used. This study data from premier farmers of this section, field studies, surveys, Statistical yearbook 1389 and also Statistics released by Agriculture Jahad organization of Qazvin province was collected and to analyze data and solve the proposed model Excel software was used. The results showed that the current pattern of farming in this section is not optimal and production inputs Non-efficient used. Therefore, we can take effective steps with using the proposed model in addition to choosing the appropriate pattern and optimum use of region resources, in order to increase farmer's incomes and reduce environmental degradation removal.

Analytical results of 11 groundwater samples are used to evaluate the quality of groundwater in the Hastijan area, (Central province –Iran). The main indices of water, ions physicochemical characteristics and the important heavy metals concentration studied. to estimate of water quality, Piper, Ghibbs, Schoeller and Wilcox diagrams, Sodium Absorption Ratio, Color-Alkalinity and Saturation Index studied. Based on the analytical results, groundwater quality in the Hastijan area is generally varies from hard to very hard. The type and facies of water in study area is calcic bicarbonate and sodic and magnesic bicarbonate. In these waters, Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations is higher than Na+ and K+, and HCO3- is higher than SO42- and Cl-. Consideration of rocks composition in part of the study area shows that evaporation formation (limestone, Dolomite, Brown Sand Stone, marl, shale and intercalated with gypsum and salt) caused increased Na+, Cl- concentrations and salinity of the groundwater. The results of calculated saturation index show that the saturation index for carbonate minerals is positive and for sulfate minerals is negative. According to the parameters and international standards, almost all of groundwater in the study area is suitable and usable for agricultural purposes and to be used for drinking as good, acceptable water. Finally, the large portion of samples was corrosive for industrial usage.

In this research priority of Gorgan’s sub- watershed were done after normalizing the indicators using GIS software. The multi-attribute decision-making methods including ELECTRE, TOPSIS and SAW were used in this study. AHP was applied in order to weighting the indicators in Expert Choice software. First, Priority the sub-watershed were done by ELECTRE, TOPSIS and SAW using the Excel. Each method according to its approach presented different ranking. Second, Copeland method was selected for removing the conflict among results of applied methods. There was found the significant relationship among ranking methods using Spearman correlation coefficient. Then, the correlation coefficient of the ranking results was measured between Copeland and decision-making methods. Results showed that sub- watershed 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11 regarding to three cited methods were similar in priority 1 to 4 and also they have the most significant potential for agriculture among all sub-basins. The results of correlation showed SAW, ELECTRE and TOPSIS were in first, second and third grade of Gorgan’s priority for rainfed agriculture, respectively. The analyses indicated Copeland was the best method for agriculture.

This study has been executed aiming at identifying, classifying and investigating the environmental effects of Lorestan’s Roodbaar Dam during its exploitation phase through utilizing MIKE11 software and LINMAP technique. Lorestan’s Roodbaar Dam is located in Lorestan Province, 100 kilometers to the South of Alugoodarz Town on Roodbaar River (from branches of Eastern Dez River), within the area of Zagros Mountains in the West of Iran. It is crucial not to consider merely one parameter when using the evaluation methods, on the contrary, the mutual effects of all parameters and their consequent effects must be taken into account. The immediately- affected area was located through collecting data from the environmental conditions of the area and from the technical information on Roodbaar Dam using MIKE 11 software. The positive and negative effects of the dam were eventually prioritized using LINMAP mathematical model. Prioritizing the positive effects of the project indicated that (income) ranked 0.0507, following that (services, industry, commercial) ranked 0.0480 and was placed in the second place. Two villages will go under water with the construction of this dam. This will lead to the mentioned villagers moving and their resettlement. Therefore (moving) ranked 0.3452 and it earned first place among the negative effects of the dam and (erosion) (sedimentation within the dam’s container), (the endangered plant species within the area) all ranked 0.2959 and were placed second within the prioritization. At the end proper approaches were presented for the exploitation stage of Lorestan’s Roodbar Dam taking into consideration the results obtained from prioritizing the effects.

Development of remote sensing (RS) and GIS techniques and that of landscape metrics in the late 1980s have caused to introduce a new dimension in the landscape ecology arena (the relationship between spatial patterns and ecological processes). However, scale dependence of some of landscape metrics and RS systems of different spatial resolution has resulted in particular attention into selection of an appropriate scale in the landscape ecology studies and correct interpretation of ecological processes. Hence, the present study has investigated the behaviors of some landscape metrics in relation to changes in scale. Accordingly, the effects of the scale (pixel size and extent) on those landscape metrics which indicate trends of vegetation cover class was discussed applying Landsat images in Isfahan city and its surrounding (an area of ​​960 thousand hectares). For this purpose, behavior of NP, PD, LSI, MPS, ED, MNN, MSI and TCAI have studied through changing the size from 30 m to 60, 120, 240 and 480 and extent from 300 ha to 600, 1200, 2400 and 4800. The results of this study indicated sensitivity of these metrics except TCAI in relation to the scale factor. This type of studies and attention to the spatial scale have indicated that it could play an important role in identifying the impacts of ecological processes, predicting the ecological functions (landscape modeling) and reducing the uncertainty in landscape ecology studies.

Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops, Bruun and Kaiser, 1944)is one of thevery rareandendemicspeciesof Iran. Its distributionrangeislimitedina habitat that causes some problems for its conservation. Thisuniquehabitatfaces somenatural and humanthreatsand the habitatdestructionmeansthe extinctionof the species. Based on, habitat selection for translocation of the species is an important objective. Hence,Analytic Network Process (ANP) was used toprioritizehabitats for translocation. Environmental factors(includingphysical and chemical parametersof waterand the plankton density) and human factors(including management, local peopleandtourists) were used. Euclidian distancesimilarity coefficient for environmental parametersandpairedcomparisons for the humanfactors was used. The resultsshowed thatZarianabad cave in Khorram-abadcity has highestpriority for. The cavealso has thepotential toattract touristsinthe area. Althoughthe goal of the translocation is the species conservation but also it can develop of tourismin the area. Tourism development can improve theeconomic situationof local peoplein the area, which could bean importantincentiveforlocal peoplesforthe speciesconservation. The resultsof this studycanbe guidance for wildlife managers for the species translocation.

Mammals are increasingly affected by ongoing trend of extinction and one fourth of the world’s existing known mammalian species are endangered. Lack of proper conservation strategy can lead to non-suitable allocation of resources to larger species and ingoring smaller taxa. Despite Iran’s rich diversity of mammalian fauna which is predominantly comprised from smaller species (more than 150 species), most researches have been conducted on various ecological aspects of large species, meaning less charismatic taxa have not been properly focused. Accordingly, the present investigation has been implemented with the aim of conservation prioritization of the Iran’s mammals, based on their evolutionary distinctiveness and globally endangered score. Moreover, attempts devoted to species regarding graduate university dissertations as well as research projects funded by the Iranian Department of Environment (DoE) have been assessed to give an overall comprehensive review of the state of the Iranian mammals for effective conservation. Thus, top 50 species with highest priority value were recognized, initiated by Asiatic cheetah, Asiatic black bear and dugong. Rodent and chiroptera consisted the highest proportion of the high priority species of the country, respectively. In contrast, between 2007 and 2012, a total of 43 university thesis have been done on these top species (mostly habitat surveys and ecology), including 24 on ungulates versus 12 for carnivores, indicating intensive attention from Iranian biologists to these larger species. The same conclusion was derived based on analysis of funds allocated to different research projects by the DoE. Accoridngly, while supporting the present approach by the Iranian biologists to address top large species in order to fill existing gaps of knowledge, it is essential to meet conservation needs of smaller species, such as lesser carnivores, rodents and bats. Moreover, it is recommended that to enhance the present prioritization of the Iranian mammals, a comprehensive assessment is needed with participation of Iranian biologists based on IUCN’s Red List criteria to give a more nationalized inventory of prioritized species.

Vegetation studies measuring the accuracy of the results is important. The purpose of this study is to compare shape and distribution plots on different levels for species richness measurements.Thiscomparison was in three design Whittaker, Stohlgern and a new design (Ariz) in Ariz, Sanandaj.Designed proposition (Ariz) obtainedon base changes in the size and distribution plotin design Stohlgern species richness is designed to measure accurately. This study was conducted with three replications in grassland vegetation type. Compare plans were originally wooden and rope was walking in the area, and then proceed to the species in the plots were counted. Data analysis and statistical methods in factorial completely randomized design was performed using spss software version 17. The results showed that the three estimates of species richness are having a significant difference in the estimation of species richness and Stohlgern plan and Whittaker are significantly different in the level 0.01. Whittaker plans and proposal (Ariz) in this study are the significantly different in the level 0.01 But Stohlgern plan and Ariz design are significantly different in the level 0.05.

Numerous ecological risk assessment methodologies have been developed over the last twenty years around the world for evaluating effects of pollutant on receptors such as different wildlife species. But so far such methods have only rarely been used to determine potential ecological risks in Iran. Therefore in this study we used one of these methodologies (Eco-SSLs) to determine ecological risk for some different wildlife groups. To this end, considering soil maps, geology, land use, and distribution of pollutant sources, including the location of mines, industry, main roads, hazardous waste sites, agricultural lands, 216 surface Soil samples (0-30 cm) were collected from Golestan province, north of Iran were subjected to a total digestion technique and analyzed for As, Cd, Cu, Mn and Zn. ordinary kriging was used to predict soil concentrations. Metal concentrations maps were then used to Map ecological risk of HMs based on the USEPA’s Eco-SSLs to assess their ecological risks posed by these heavy metals for plants, invertebrates and vertebrates groups. The results showed that the average concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Mn and Zn in soil of Golestan were up to 9.10, 0.12, 24.42, 700.31and 82.08 mg/kg, respectively, which are much higher than their natural background values. Results showed that the mean concentrations of these heavy metals were lower than potential effect levels. Among the metals, Mn and Zn showed a higher ecological risk than the others. Ecological risk further indicated that Golestan was not suffering from serious metal contamination based on Eco-SSLs methodology. Generally Maps of risk based on the USEPA’s Eco-SSLs (for plants, invertebrates and vertebrates) showing that wildlife may be partly at risk but that the relevance of Eco-SSL values is questionable and the present study found that, although this methodology was of a high scientific standard, but it seems it would need modification before its using in Iran.

Conservation and sustainability of natural ecosystems and sustainability of rural communities by good linking between communities and ecosystems through developing of alternative lifestyles are essential. Inthisregard based on the Ecovillage model as a model of sustainable lifestyle was paid to provide appropriate strategies for sustainable living in rural societies around wetland with identify advantages and limitations and strengths and weaknesses of rural communities around wetland and using of strategic planning to allow sustainable lifestyle and sustainable relationship with wetland ecosystem to rural communities. This paper aims to answer this question that what are appropriate strategies for development of sustainable and compatible lifestyle with wetland ecosystem based on Ecovillage model in rural areas around Miankale and Lapo zaghmarz wetlands? This study using a descriptive- analytic and surveying methodology and SWOC analysis and evaluation matrix of QSPM has provided appropriate strategies. The results show that the development of sustainable lifestyle and compatible lifestyle with wetland ecosystems in studied rural areas should be in direction address the weaknesses and threats, and in this regard strategies for ecosystem protection, changes in culture of consumption and mass communications and interactions should be considered.