مجله تحقیقات حمایت و حفاظت جنگلها و مراتع ایران
سال هجدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 36، پاییز و زمستان 1399)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the vegetation cover of alder and broadleaved coniferous forests of alder, maple and oak and compare it with natural forest in Ramsar Ridge. 96 sample plots of 400 square meters were collected by regular random sampling.The bio-spectrum of plants was determined based on the vegetative forms of Rankier and the geographical distribution of species based on the Zohary method. The results showed that 30 plant species belong to 23 families, most of which belonged to Fabaceae and Poaceae, Rosaceae. In terms of biological form, hemicryptophytes and cryptophytes were dominant with 68.73% of vegetative forms. The study of geographical distribution of plants in the region showed that the plant elements of Europe-Siberia constitute the most of the plant elements in the study area. Evaluation of plant biodiversity in forest stands showed that Simpson and Shannon Wiener diversity indices and Ghanaian Margalph index were not statistically significant and Kamenergo and Smith Wilson richness indices and homogeneity indices were not significantly different. Showed. Biodiversity of woody species regeneration in Simpson species diversity indices was highest in Alnus subcordata C.A. Mey and lowest in Cupressus Semprvienes L.Var. horizontails.

Erysiphales Fungi are pathogen of plants with the cosmopolitan distribution and has pathogenic effect on wide range of mono and dichotiledon plants. About 650 species number of Erysiphales have been identified. Each species of these Fungi has different host. But the distribution of its species varies in different regions of the world. In this study, a complete list of Erysipelas fungi that reported in Lorestan province from 1897 to 2018 was prepared and a group of plants infected with these fungi were collected and studied from areas of this province that 8 species of fungi were identified from 8 plant hosts species that there are no reports of any Erysipelas and other fungi in the world on these hosts. As reported of, Leveillula contractirostris on Alcea koelzi, Leveillula papilionacearum on Astragalus brachicalix, Erysiphe buhri on Mesostema kotschyana, Golovinomyces oronti on Crupina crupinastrum, Phyllactinia babayanii on Amygdalus Hausknechti, Erysiphe polygoni on Astragalus iranicus, Erysiphe astragali on Astragalus ovinus and Podosphaera dipsacacearum on Pterocephalus plumosus,are the new reports in the world. These reports add to 85 reported host’s species of Erysipelas from Lorestan province and 552 species reported from Iran and about 10,000 reported hosts in worldwide.

Sawflies of the Insect collection of conservation and protection of forest and rangeland research group, Iranian Research Institute of Forest and Rangeland that were collected from Azarbaijan-Sharghi, Ardabil, Gilan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces have been studied and in total 22 species identified, of which the species Allantus truncatus (Klug, 1818) and Pristiphora subbifida (Thomson, 1871) are newly recorded from Iran. Distribution data and host plant of two new records of sawfly species and also number of families, genera and species of sawflies recorded from different provinces are presented. Sawflies of the Insect collection of conservation and protection of forest and rangeland research group, Iranian Research Institute of Forest and Rangeland that were collected from Azarbaijan-Sharghi, Ardabil, Gilan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces have been studied and in total 22 species identified, of which the species Allantus truncatus (Klug, 1818) and Pristiphora subbifida (Thomson, 1871) are newly recorded from Iran. Distribution data and host plant of two new records of sawfly species and also number of families, genera and species of sawflies recorded from different provinces are presented.

The current study evaluated the allelopathic potential of the Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin) leaf residues on seed germination and biomass attributes of the Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) seedlings. An experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design by eight replications. Experimental treatments consisted of different levels of leaf residues at concentrations of 0%, 2.5%, 5%,and 7.5%.Germination index was used in order to investigate the effect of allelochemicals on seeds germination. In addition, the effect of allelopathic materials on seedling biomass was measured by calculating the parameters of collar diameter, fresh and dry weight of seedlings, root dry weight, number of leaves, seedling weight vigor index and percentages of seedling water content index. The results revealed that seed germination index, seedling dry weight, seedling fresh and dry root weight and seedling weight vigor index significantly decreased at different concentrations of leaf residues compared to control, but the increase in concentration had no significant effect on these attributes. But higher concentrations of leaf residues had stronger inhibitory effects on seedling collar diameter, fresh seedling weight and the number of leaves per seedling. The present study clearly proved the allelopathic effects of the Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin) leaf residues on biomass attributes of the Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) seedlings. In addition, the Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin) leaf residues can be used to control the irregular growth of Tree of heaven seed as an invasive species, as well as weed management in agroforestry systems which require further studies.

Several species of chalcid wasps of the family Eurytomidae feed on seeds of various pasture plants. Due to a high damage caused to seeds by some eurytomid species, plants settlement are diminished in the pastures. This study was carried out during 2015-2017.Plant seeds were collected from 4 provinces of Iran including: Fars, Isfahan, Bushehr and Chaharmahal – Bakhtiyari. Studied plant species were belonged to the families Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Lamiaceae and Asteraceae. Totally, 16 eurytomid species were identified among 405 reared specimens. The list of identified wasps includes 13 species of Bruchophagus, one species of Eurytoma, one species of Exeurytoma and one species from Systole. Species identification was done on the base of adult external morphology and host plants. Moreover, 27 plant species are firstly indicated here as host plants of Eurytomidae wasps.Collected and identified species of Eurytomidae are as following: Brochophagous abnormis Zerova, 1984, B. astragali Fedoseeva, 1954, B. desertus Zerova, 1994, B. evolans szelenyi, 1961, B. glycyrrhizae (Nikolskaya, 1952), B. kononovae Zerova, 1994, B. macronycis Fedoseeva, 1956, B. medicaginis Zerova, 1992, B. mutabilis (Nikolskaya, 1952), B.‌ononis (Mayr, 1878), B. platypterus (Walker, 1834),B. roddi (Gussakovsky, 1933), B. trigonellae (Zerova, 1970), *Exeurytoma anatolica Cam, 1998, Eurytoma onobrychidis Nikol’skaya, 1933, Systole prangicola Zerova, 1972.

Ecotourism as one of rangeland ecosystem services in the development plan countries has been under the focus of governments and land managers. The goal of this study is strategic analysis of rangeland ecotourism in Til Abad -Golestan province by using pastoralists and rangeland experts’ point of view. In this order, after identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and weaknesses factors of rangeland ecotourism through face-to-face interviews, weighting and prioritization of factors conducted by a semi-structured questionnaire between 60 expert and pastoralist via SWOT model. Result showed that between strength factors ‘seasonal aesthetic such as flowering of Saffron over a specific period of year’ and ‘economic income on account of rangeland ecotourism for pastoralists’ with final weight of 0.389 and 0.287 were introduced with highest prioritization by pastoralists and experts. Among weakness factors ‘lack of waste collection system and effect of garbage on aesthetic feature of the landscape’ and ‘lack of taking traditional knowledge and local human sources into consideration for ecotourism management’ with final weight of 0.552 and 0.413 were introduced. ‘Execution of international carbon sequestration project in the region and its economic potential’ and ‘reciprocal transmission of local cultures’ with final weigh of 0.590 and 0.645 were identified among opportunity factors. Among threat factors ‘weakness of ecotourism visitor’s culture and lack of natural resources culture’ with final weight of 0.449 and 0.669 was introduced with highest prioritization by pastoralists and experts. In addition, strategic situation of rangeland ecotourism was determined as ‘defensive’ (WT) by pastoralists and ‘competitive’ (WT) by experts.

The project of studying pests of different Salix species in West Azarbaijan Province was started in 2011 for five years. Samplings were carried out at 15–30 day intervals in growing seasons in seven natural selected sites, and willow collection design in Saatloo Research Station. Pest arthropods were collected using hand picking, collecting of infected tree branches, as well as rearing immature stages of some pests inside jars in the controlled conditions. The density of population and also damage of six important pests were surveyed in randomized complete designe in Saatloo Research Station for two years. The data were analysed by the SPSS 19 software and comparison of means conducted by Tukey ̓ s test.Totally, 40 species of harmful arthropods, belonging to26 families, were collected and identified, among them, Monosteira unicostata, Pontania sp.1, Chaitophorus niger, Tuberolachnus salignus,Melanophila picta and Tetranychus urticae were recognized as the important pests.Among the willow species, S.excelsa and S. alba were considered as the important hosts of many pests, on which the densities of pests were higher during the samling period.Moreover, S. aegyptiacahad the lowest density of the above-mentioned pests.

In this study, to isolate and identify the root endophyte fungi, root samples of herbaceous plants were collected from the central regions of Mazandaran province during 2016-17. In laboratory, each root sample was cultured on PDA medium after surface disinfestation and incubated for a month at 25°C and continuous darkness. Fungal isolates were purified using the single spore and hyphal tip methods. Fungal species were identified based on morphological characteristic and ITS sequence data. In this study, 27 species belonging to 14 different genera including: Alternaria alternata, A.arborescens, A. burnsii, A. dumosa, A. solani, A. tenuissima, Botryosphaeria dothidea , B. auasmontanum, Curvularia australiensis, C. buchloes, C. spicifera, Cladosporium tenuissimum, Daldinia concentrica, Diaporthe bohemiae, Fusarium acuminatum, F. avenaceum, F. equiseti, F. oxysporum, F. tricinctum, F.verticillioides، Microsphaeropsis arundinis، Nigrospora sphaerica، Paraconiothyrium cyclothyrioides, Periconia macrospinosa, Poaceascoma helicoides, Preussia minima and Xylaria heliscus were identified. Among identified fungi Botryosphaeria auasmontanum, Curvularia australiensis, C. buchloes, C. spicifera, Diaporthe bohemiae, Microsphaeropsis arundinis, Nigrospora sphaerica, Paraconiothyrium cyclothyrioides, Periconia macrospinosa, Poaceascoma helicoides and Preussia minima are new for mycoflora of Iran. Except Alternaria arborescens, other fungi are introduced from their hosts for the first time, in Iran.

Twelve poplar clones from euramericana, Deltoides and hybrid groups were evaluated to assess the damage and determination of poplar resistant to Parantrene tabaniformis and Nycteola asiatica in nursery and main field. This study was conducted as RCBD with 12 treatments and 3 replications at Fakhrabad Research Station in 2019. Each experimental plot in the nursery consisted of 45 one-year-old seedlings and in the main field consisted of 20 three-year-old trees. Sampling of N. asiatica damage was done every 15 days by selecting two infected trees from each plot and counting the number of larvae and measuring eaten leaf area. Damage of P. tabaniformis was also studied by counting the gall on the stem. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between percentage infection of P. tabaniformis and N. asiatica in the nursery and main field. As the P.eur. Blanc du poitou and P. deltoides 77/51 clones were the most sensitive and resistant clones to P. tabaniformis in the nursery, respectively and P.x. Interamericana and P. deltoides 69/55 were the most sensitive and resistant clones to this pest in the main field, respectively. The P. deltoides Marquette was the most susceptible clone to N. asiatica at the both study levels. and P. deltoides 92/258, P. x. ITA.199, P.eur. Blanc du poitou, P.eur. i-sieres, P.x. interamericana and P. deltoides 69/55 were the most resistant clones in nurseries without any contamination. Also P.eur. Blanc du poitou was introduced as the most resistant poplar clone to N. asiatica in poplar plantation.

The crisis of decline or drying of oak trees in the Zagros forests is one of the problems we have faced in recent years. The first step in managing this crisis is to map the affected areas and classify the severity of deforestation. The present study aimed to evaluate the Landsat OLI capability to map oak stands dieback in the Koohdasht city of Lorestan province. In addition to the main bands and fused bands with the 15-meter panchromatic band of the OLI sensor, suitable vegetation indices and the first components from PCA were also applied in the claasification. 150 square sample plots with dimensions of 30 × 30 meters were recorded to produce ground truth map. Data classification was done using minimum distance to mean, maximum likelihood and artificial neural networks classifiers in 5 classes of dieback and accuracy assessment was done using ground truth map. Because of the low separability of some classes, these classes were merged. Finally, classification with three and two classes (healthy, dieback) was performed. The highest overall accuracy of 53%, 75% and 91% and Kappa coefficient of 0.43, 0.64 and 0.71 was obtained using fused bands and artificial neural networks classifier for five, three and two dieback classes, respectively. The results demonstrated high performance of Landsat 8-OLI for mapping of healthy and oak dieback areas, but low to moderate functionality for identification of the intensity of oak decline in the study area.

The main aim of this study is identification of areas susceptible to high dust concentrations, investigating a number of factors affecting its formation (including wetland drying and soil moisture) and their coherence with synoptic factors (including climate maps and regional wind). The spatial distribution pattern of dust is an important variable in understanding dust transport and implementing appropriate control strategies. The present study investigates the spatial distribution of dust in the Jazmourian Basin using a simulation with the NMMB / BSC-Dust model over a three-year period (from 2014 to 2016). For this purpose, several dust events in the Jazmurian basin were selected based on the visibility and dust codes, and the dust transfer route was monitored for up to 72 hours for this date. Finally, by overlaying the model images in these selective intervals, by using the fuzzy method in ArcGIS environment, the map of areas disposed to high dust concentration in the basin were prepared. For each selected date, the SMAP satellite image was used to measure soil moisture. And zonal winds were investigated using the NCEP/NCAR model. The results of this study showed that the central part of the Jazmurian basin, which is the location of the Jazmurian wetland, had the highest dust concentration during the study period. In addition, a synoptic study of dust sustainable areas showed that in the dates of the dust occurrence, low-pressure and high wind speeds centers formed on the surface of the basin.

This study was conducted to investigate the properties of soil in natural habitats of truffle fungi (Tuber spp.) in six selected sites located in Loveh forests of Golestan province. Sampling of tree roots was done in the area that the host of Tuber spp. was existed and most of the truffle was harvested from them. The Tuber fungus was identified by the ITSrDNA region and comparing its sequence with the nucleotide sequences of the Genbank database. To sample the soil around the roots, five soil samples were taken for each ecological unit and a compound sample was prepared after mixing. After preparing soil samples, the amount of pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, calcium carbonate, potassium, calcium, magnesium and soil phosphorus were measured. Tuber fungus was identified as Tuber aestivum. All T. aestivum fruiting bodies were present in soils with alkaline pH and low phosphorus concentrations. C/N ratios of soils were above ten, indicating a preference of T. aestivum for soils that are poor in the readily degradable nitrogen and high nitrogen content in soils can limit the development of mycorrhizae. Our inventory suggested that a higher Ca/Mg ratio could be favourable for T. aestivum fruiting. The K/Mg ratio was below two at all sites. Our results showed that, in Golestan province, host species other than Quercus spp. are also important in regard to the hosting Tuber species.

Arasbaran forests are one of the richest forest habitats in Iran, which their appearance, species composition, and structure have drastically changed because of human activities in the past few centuries. The present study aimed to investigate the different structures of forest stands that result from degradation and disturbance. The research data were collected from 148 established round sample plots of 3 ares in Kaleibarchay and Ilgenachay zones. Different defined groups were generated based on the basal area (m2/ha), density (trees/ha), highest tree, crown cover percentage, and the number of seedlings and coppice sprouts using hierarchical cluster analysis. A number of the cluster was assessed based on K- Means analysis. Then PCA was used to detect the most effective variables. The results of PCA showed that the first and second components explain 73.7% of the changes and basal area per ha and density per ha were the most effective factors in classification. Finally, the results revealed that 89.1% of grouped cases are correctly classified. Thus the area was divided into 5 classes, according to the degree of degradation which the first group with the best condition includes the succeeding stands towards climax communities, and the fifth group includes degraded forests. Based on these results, a decision can be made commensurate to the degradation stages and improvement can be achieved through proper planning.

Chicory, Chicorium intybus L.is an important of medicinal plants and Aphis intybi Koch. is one of it's pests in early season. Some life table parameters of A. intybi were determined under natural (20- 33ºC and 35-80% RH) and laboratory (22 ± 2ºC, 65 ± 5% RH and a photoperiod of 14:10 h (L: D)) conditions. The experiment was carried out by rearing 20 aphid nymphs in leaf cages and their mortality and reproduction was recorded daily. The results indicated under natural condition A. intybi survivorship, fecundity, longevity, nymphal reproduction period and post nymphal reproduction period had shorter than laboratory condition, but nymphal developmental time in laboratory condition was shorter than natural condition. The results indicated, that different conditions (field and laboratory) had a significant effect on A. intybi life table parameters.

Cherry ermine moth, Yponomeuta padella (L.) (Lep.: Yponomeutidae) is a major pest of Cratagus monogyna in central Zagros region that induces serious damage into this forest,s species in recent years. Larvae feed on leaves and makes web by leaves and lead to reduce of phthosynthesis level by attracting of pollutant and fungies. In this study, biochemical properties of some digestive proteases of the 5th instar larvae of cherry ermine moth were studied in its alimentary canal. Whole of gut was used in experiments. After dissecting, guts were homogenized and centrifuged with distilled water. Supernatant was used in enzyme activity studies. The optimal pH for protease activity in alimentary canal were found 11 in presence of Azocasein and hemoglobin as general substrates. The optimal pH for trypsin and chymotrypsin activity were obtained 10-11 and 11, respectively in presence of BApNA and SAAPPpNA as their private substrates. Optimal temperature for protease activity was 25-30ºC. The inhibitory effect of inhibitors on enzyme activity was sharply. Results showed that the highest inhibition rate in proteolytic activity caused by TLCK. Inhibition percentage TPCK and PMSF was 34.15 and 21.34% respectively. Study on physiological characteristics of digestive enzyme and their inhibitors was done for first time. Y. padella is a serious pest on Cratagus monogyna and Cerasus sp. It seems this research could be benefit in management respect of it.