جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « protected areas » در نشریات گروه « زیست شناسی »

Lorestan province, as a predominantly mountainous region, covers important part of critical habitats of Persian leopard (Panthera pardus) in west of Iran. However, there is little information on geographical distribution of the leopard in this province. This study aims to identify suitable habitats of the Persian leopard in Lorestan province, using an ensemble model consisting of seven species distribution models. The ensemble model identified 6,185 km2 (21.85%) of the study area as suitable habitat for the Persian leopard. Distance to conservation areas (30%), distance to village (29%), distance to farmlands (11%), annual precipitation (8%) and distance to forest (7%) made the highest contribution to the model performance. About 49% of the identified suitable habitat covered by conservation areas. Establishing more conservation areas in suitable habitats and re-evaluation of the network of conservation areas are crucial strategies to conserve endangered populations of the leopard. Many large carnivores, due to their large home ranges, depend on habitat patches outside protected areas and corridors between them. Thus, conserving the habitat patches and connectivity between them are crucial. Monitoring and surveillance of habitats, using effective conservation strategies, and promoting local community involvement are other important issues.

Conservation of biodiversity under changing environment is a real challenge for conservation biologists. Previous studies have shown that climate change will have negative impacts on bat species. However very little is known about the potential impacts of climate change on bats of Iran. Pipistrellus pipistrellus is a small insectivore bat which live in vast area in Iran. Despite being widespread, the species ecology remains unknown. In the present study we predicted the impacts of climate change on the species distribution, identified future climate refugia for the species and assessed protected areas effectiveness in covering the species suitable habitats. We applied an ensemble approach using four distribution modeling methods (Generalized Linear Models, Generalized Additive Models, Maximum Entropy Modelling and Random Forest). then projected the ensemble model in to the future. We found that the species will lose 118551 km2 of its suitable habitats while gaining 59303 km2 new climatically suitable habitats. Results showed that 7.1 percent of the species suitable habitats covered by protected areas under current climatic condition but in the future suitable habitats will decrease to 6.7 and 6.2 percent under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 respectively. Climatically stable habitats identified in this study can play important role in species survival under climate change thus they have high priority for conservation.

Taloo and Shirband hunting Prohibited area is located 12 kilometers North-East of Damghan in Semnan Province, south of the Alborz Mountain Chains. It has a cold and dry climate in the winter and warm and dry in the summer. This area has a rich biodiversity, especially in its reptilian fauna. 22 snake species were reported so far from Semnan Province. However, no comprehensice study was executed on the snake flora in Taloo and Shirband hunting prohibited area before the present study. Therfore, the present research was carried out in order to identify the snake fauna by collecting relevant specimens from March to late November of 2014. Sampling was done manually (with safety precautions) by sticking and hooking. The live specimens were identified and photographed and transferred to the laboratory of Islamic Azad University, Damghan Branch. Six metric and meristic traits were measured and analyzed using SPSS17 and Excel softwares. A total number of 45 snake specimens were collected which were belong to 10 species, 8 genera and 4 families, including: Platyceps karelini karelini (Brandt 1838), Platyceps rhodorachis rhodorachis, Platyceps ventrimaculatus ventrimaculatus (Spotted Flat-headed Snake); Hemorrhois ravergieri (Ravergier’s Snake), Telescopus fallax iberus (Iberian Tiger-Snake), Spalerosophis diadema cliffordii (Clifford’s Diadem Snake), Psammophis schokari (Schokari Sand Racer), Eryx miliaris (Dwarf Sand Boa), Macrovipera lebetina obtusa (Blunt Viper) and Pseudocarastes persicus (Persian False Horned Viper). The highest frequency belonged to Spalerosophis diadema cliffordii and the lowest frequency belonged to Telescopus fallax iberus. All species were reported for the first time from the studied area and Eryx miliaris was reported for the Semnan Province faunafor the first time. Out of 8 endemic species of snakes in Iran, only Pseudocarastes persicus was observed in the area.

Persian Leopard is the most prominent mammals in Iran, where most of its distribution is known to be in this country. Dispersion of this species depends on anthropological and climatical factors. Studying its habitat as a keystone species is really important because it has effects on the functions of the ecosystem. With this all said, conservation measures are crucial for this species.  Based on the previous studies, despite the wide range of Iranian leopard diet, factors such as land use change has reduced its prey in many areas. Nowadays new habitat modelling methods play an important role in wildlife management and conservation. One of these methods is the MaxEnt approach. In this study, using this method and using variables of land cover, topographic, climatic and human-made, modeling to predict suitable habitats of Persian Leopard, Wild Goat, Urial Wild Sheep and Armenian Wild Sheep were performed as their favorite preys. Based on the model evaluation results by using Jackknife index and response curves showed that Persian Leopard, Wild Goat, Urial Wild Sheep and Armenian Wild Sheep have shown significant responses to the distance of protected areas. It also showed that taking distance from protected areas to reduce habitat suitabilities for the studied species. Also, Persian leopard habitats have significant overlaps with its 3 favourite prey. This shows the importance of wild goats, Urial and Armenian wild sheep in Persian leopard habitats.

Landscape parameters influencing species diversity and richness are important factors for selecting and designing parks and protected areas. The current study investigates the influence of area size and shape on mammal species richness and diversity of six Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad Protected Areas including, Dena, Khayyz and Sorkh, Eastern Dena, Khamyn, Daele and Solak. Overall 20 mammal species were recorded in the region. The maximum values of species diversity (1.64) and richness (19.65) belonged to Dena Protected Area and the minimum values of species diversity (0.79) and richness (9.45) obtained for Solak Protected Area. Linear regression analysis revealed the positive effect of area and negative effect of shape (the ratio of perimeter to area) on mammal species richness and diversity. Due to the increasing habitat destructions which has restricted the conservation of biodiversity to protected areas, it is necessary to prevent further reduction of perimeter to area ratio with an effort to increase area size. This might help to better manage and protect the biodiversity of Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad province.