نشریه تحقیقات منابع طبیعی تجدید شونده
سال یازدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 34، پاییز و زمستان 1399)

The attention of academic institutions, environmentalists, decision-makers, and trustees to ecosystem services has grown exponentially by increasing attention to ecosystem uses. Quantitative identification and evaluation of the most important ecosystem products and services, mapping the current situation, and predicting changes related to the ecosystem services are the main objectives of this study. In order to conduct this study, a combination of participatory and modeling methods was used to evaluate several selected land-use changes for the Dohezar-Sehezar forest basin. To evaluate the most important ecosystem services in the designated basin area, determination of the study area, commitment to policy and decision making, initial area assessment, planning to evaluate services, selection appropriate methods for the field identified on the region, determination of the alternative status appropriate to the management change or planned policy, selecting of appropriate practices for each of the identified ecosystem services, and the results have been analyzed and informed. The land use map of Dohezar-Sehezar for 1987 and 2014 showed that the use of land has changed in the four main groups of forests, grassland, agricultural lands and lands without cover for 27 years. Generally, in exchange for the reduction of forest levels, changes have been made in other uses. The results obtained from the interpretation of satellite images in combination with field visits and other available documents showed that the extent of forest land use was decreased from 33,348 hectares in 1987 to 24,248 hectares in 2014. The results of the quantitative evaluation showed that in the future scenario, the decline of about 0.8% of the density of dense forests and 0.58% of the semi-dense forests is predictable.

Changing land use causes changes in the soil, which in turn affect the organic matter, nutrients, and soil organisms including fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are terrestrial microorganisms that coexist with the roots of a wide range of forest and non-forest plants. The diversity and distribution of this fungus are affected by the composition of plant species, soil characteristics, environmental conditions, and soil microorganisms. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of changing land use from forest to tea garden on soil chemical properties and the coexistence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The samples were randomly collected from forest and tea plantation areas near to the heights of Lahijan and 20 samples were collected from each area at a depth of 0-30 cm around the roots in the autumn. At the same time, fine root samples were obtained from the rhizosphere of the trees and tea bushes. The colonization percentage and the number of spores of mycorrhizal fungi, organic carbon, pH, phosphorus, and soil absorbable potassium were measured. The results indicated that the average percentage of colonization and the number of spores in the forest soil was higher than in the tea garden soil. There was a significant difference between pH and organic carbon and absorbable potassium in the soil. There was a negative correlation between the number of mycorrhiza spores and the soil absorbable potassium (r = -0.418) and soil pH (r = -0.571). There was a positive correlation between the percentage of root colonization and pH (r = 0.453 **). Finally, changing of land use and vegetation following by soil chemical properties changing, resulted in decreasing the coexistence and number of mycorrhizal fungi spores in the soil.

The increasing destruction of the Zagros forests ecosystem in recent years has doubled the need for valuation studies in this area. The progressive development of economic valuations methods in recent decade enables the application of the concept of payments for ecosystem services (PES) in order to conservation of forest biodiversity and habitate functions. In this study, the habitat value of North Zagros forests in Sarvabad basin of Kurdistan province was estimated through conditional valuation method (CVM) and logit model. For this purpose, 260 willingness to pay questionnaires based on Cochran's formula were completed. The internal consistency of the questionnaire items and the reliability of the questionnaires were confirmed by Cronbach's alpha (77.6) and the validity of the items and questions was also judged by a group of related professors. The willingness to pay for habitat protection function was calculated through the logit regression model and using the median willingness to pay method. The expected amount of willingness to pay for the protection of the habitat value of the study area in this study was equal to 52825.8 Rials. Also, the annual value of habitat and wildlife protection of Sarvabad watershed was equal to 121254.6 million Rials and the annual conservation and habitat value of the whole basin (per hectare) was equal to 6.58 million Rials. The results confirms that people who have already visited the area, are members of environmental organizations, or have an environmental orientation are significantly more likely to accept a willingness to pay than those who do not.

In this study, the effect of artificial inhomogeneity of density in the initial and middle of Oak wood beams (Quercus castaneifolia) by the changes in the dynamic shear modulus values obtained from the free vibration in free-free beam method have been investigated. For this purpose, 10 specimens of Oak wood species with a dimension of 720×40×20 mm (longitudinal, radial, and tangential) were tested by the free flexural vibration method to determine the shear modulus in the solid wood beams. After that, the samples were divided into two groups and from the first group, the blocks with a dimension of 40×40×20 mm from the initial part, and from the second group, the blocks with the mentioned dimension were extracted from the middle part of the solid beams, and jointed to each other by polyvinyl acetate adhesive. After the jointing, the free bending vibration test was performed on both groups again. Afterward, the Oak blocks were removed from the junction and in two stages, blocks of two species of Poplar wood (Populus nigra) and Iron wood (Parrotia persica) were replaced and in order to the effect of artificial inhomogeneity created by each of the replaced blocks on the values of the shear modulus, the flexural vibration test was performed on them. The results showed that the development of artificial inhomogeneity of density in the initial area of the beam by all three species of Oak, Poplar, and Iron wood did not have a significant effect on the values of dynamic shear modulus, while creating inhomogeneity in the middle of the beam has caused a significant drop in the values of this factor. Heterogeneous beams by Iron wood species had the highest, and heterogeneous beams by Oak wood species had the lowest percentage decrease in dynamic shear modulus values.

In the last two decades, the vast areas of Zagros forests especially in Ilam province have been infected by charcoal oak disease, which killed many Persian oak trees. This study aimed to recognize the structure of the infected stands and to address the relationships between structural features and the tree characteristics with the infection level to the symptoms of charcoal oak disease. For this purpose, a number of 20 sample plots was established along a 6 km transect in Dalab protected forest to collect data such as collar diameter, diameter at breast height, height, crown area, and tree drying degree were measured and recorded for each tree within the sample plots. The number of tree bases was 153 and the surface area was 14.6 m2/ha, indicating a relatively high density and inventory of forests. In general, 85.5% of the individuals had a sign of the charcoal disease and the rate of infection was higher in seed-originated trees, middle-aged and old trees than branching bases and young ones. Based on the results, tree characteristics including collar diameter, diameter at breast height, basal area, total height, and crown area were significantly different among different infection levels of the disease. To understand the dynamics of stands’ structure under the charcoal disease, continuous monitoring of the forests is necessary. Since the higher severity of the disease outbreak in middle-aged and old trees, pruning and shrinking the infected trees’ crown to adjust the crown to root ratio as well as cutting and removing the trees which are not restorable are among the proposed practical plans.

In this research, application of statistical quality control process in Kishwood industrial company has been investigated. Statistical quality control process includes control charts and acceptance samplings. In this study, qualitative and quantitave characteristics of raw material and work in progress was investigated using standard tables and control charts ( U) were designed  for grooving, drilling, laminating and edge banding processes. In the raw material and work in progress, medium density fiberboard (16mm) lots, HPL veneer, purchased ABS stripe and the distance of the double hole from the edge of the piece in terms of quantative characteristic were investigated by MIL-STD-414 tables. In addition, purchased veneered particle board lot and the accuracy of the stripe in cabinet bottom parts in terms of qualitative characteristic were investigated by MIL-STD-105E tables. All the results were compatible with the acceptable standards of the company. Since lots data were located in the control limits, we can conclude that the whole process had been under control during the research time and can be used to control the future of the process. By calculating the process capability index (CP), it was found that grooving and drilling process have a very high capability, so the percentage of waste in these two processes is very low.

Land cover map show the spatial distribution of different landscapes such as agricultue, natural resources, water and man-made area. It is a valuable tool to managing and reducing risk in challenging issues such as drought and its effects, food security, flood control, and urban planning. In order to overcome the limitations of field work in the mapping of land cover, the use of satellite images due to the wide, multispectral and update data seems to be suitable. In the study area, the spatially heterogeneous landscapes also makes it difficult to classify features. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is accurate and high resolution land cover mapping using Sentinel-2A images in the Google Earth Engine platform. In this regard, three classification algorithms including RF, SVM and CART were evaluated and compared. Various indices were prepared using ratioing and transformation methods. The accuracy of the classifications was evaluated in comparison with ground reference data. Individual bands evaluation showed that the best overall accuracy (49%) was obtained using the CVI index.The best overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of 86% and 0.82 were obtained by RF algorithm. Therefore, while pointing to the advantages of the GEE including easily accessible data and the ability to process and quickly compare of data, it can be claimed that Sentinel-2A images for land cover mapping in terms of cost, time and accuracy, have high efficiency and the map can be very useful for the management and decision making in different natural and man-made resources for the successful implementation of sustainable development.

Fire is an integral part of most ecosystems, which have negative environmental and social consequences. The identification of effective factors in the occurrence of fire and mapping of fire risk in the forest is one of the basic tools to achieve fire control and countermeasures. The purpose of this study is to identify the ecological factors affecting the development of fire and assess the risk of fire in the forests of Sardasht region using a geographic information system. After basic studies, homogeneous environmental units were produced and divided into four classes using the multi-criteria evaluation method. The ecological conditions of the areas with a history of fire were investigated by conducting field studies. Data analysis was performed using a geographic information system and hierarchical analysis. The fire risk assessment was also performed linearly. In conclusion, vegetation and climatic factors are the most important ecological factors affecting the development of fires in the forest ecosystem. Besides, the area was moderate in terms of fire risk, and measures should be taken for high-risk areas, such as building fire stations and watchtowers.

The present study was conducted to assess the levels of awareness and sensitivity of forest dwellers on the northern forest issues in drainage basin number 53 located in Amol city (Blair forests). The study method in this study was the descriptive-analytical method through documentary research and field study. The statistical population of the study included 100 rural households in the forest basin as well as passengers (tourists) and a random sampling method with a questionnaire was used to collect data. The reliability of the measuring instrument was confirmed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.78). The main results of the study showed that the level of awareness for the benefits and environmental role of northern forests was 89.9% and the level of awareness for the economic benefits was 77.7% and was high. This study also showed that people's interaction with the region's forests is not very satisfactory.

It is necessary to study the behavior of the river under the effect of climate change, especially the runoff in the future periods. This study evaluated the effect of climate change on the runoff of Zarrineh river basin (the largest sub-basin of Lake Urmia) considering the General Circulation Model (GCM) under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (2.6 and 8.5). For this purpose, temperature and precipitation changes in the future periods in Zarrineh river basin were studied using climate data of Had GEM2-ES model during the period 2025-2050. The Climate Change Toolkit (CCT) was used to downscale climate data. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model was used to evaluate the impact of climate change on runoff the basin. Also, the SWAT model was calibrated and validated using monthly runoff. Then, downscaled results of the general circulation model interoduced to the SWAT model. And runoff changes at the outlet of the basin were simulated during 2025-2050. The results showed that the SWAT model has good performance in runoff simulation. The average results of the CCT model revealed that the maximum and minimum temperatures would increase in 2025-2050. The annual precipitation could increase 3.6% under RCP 2.6 and decrease 2.9% under RCP 8.5. The seasonal trends in the runoff showed a decreasing trend in winter, spring and summer while an increasing trend in autumn. Annual runoff under RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 has decreased 6.5% and 30% respectively. Which subsequently reduces the discharge of this river to Lake Urmia.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of natural resources and environmental education in schools in district one of the Tehran Education Department using the Kirkpatrick model. For this purpose, the amount of textbook information was assessed among the students of five schools (girls and boys) in the primary and secondary schools of this district in the academic year of 1397-1397. For this goal, first, textbooks for all grades of primary school and the first year of high school were studied, and among them, materials related to natural resources and environment were extracted and categorized, and according to the contents of each grade and its shortcomings, appropriate educational packages based on the texts and documents were prepared and available to students by the center for environmental training and environmental education of the environmental protection organization. These included: PowerPoints, films, stories, and short films suitable for the topics of natural resources and environment of each age group and educational level. The training sessions were held in one, two or three sessions in the volunteer schools, and in the first session, a pre-test was conducted and after the end of the training sessions, a post-test was conducted for the students. The results of this study showed that holding face-to-face and face-to-face environmental education classes was the most effective. In this study, the results showed that the most effective way is to hold environmental education classes in face-to-face status. The results were analyzed in SPSS software version 22. The results showed that holding face-to-face and face-to-face environmental education classes was the most effective procedure and the results of pre-test and post-test scores and statistical analysis of the third and fourth levels questionnaires of Kirkpatrick model also indicated the effectiveness of face-to-face training.

The phenomenon of vegetation drought, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, has always been one of the main problems of various ecosystems. Numerous factors cause this phenomenon in plants, the most important of which are climatic factors (decrease in rainfall and increase in temperature) and the presence of pests and semi-parasitic plants such as loranthus. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between forest tree droughts and stand structure, physiographic factors and soil in the Mian Tang forests of Ilam province. For this purpose, after combining slope, direction and altitude maps, a sample plot was randomly implemented in each of the homogeneous units, and the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the trees were measured in a circular sample plot with an area of 12 r. and recorded in census forms. According to the results, it was found that the decline of oak trees in the study area is affected by a combination of trees, stands and habitat. The results showed that 37.5% of the oak trees in the region were damaged by drought, of which 54% had a vegetative form and 58% of the damage was observed at the branches. The trees in the floors of 65, 60 and 50 cm in diameter and 8, 6 and 10 meters in height, as well as with canopy diameters of 8, 9 and 7 meters were more damaged by the oak decay phenomenon. The results also showed significant differences in some soil properties such as bulk density, electrical conductivity, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in dry and healthy trees.