جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "golestan province" در نشریات گروه "آبخیزداری، بیابان، محیط زیست، مرتع"

Throughout recent years, the Iranian government has mainly been challenged by assessing the risk of dust storms and choosing the best method for their management. In this regard, Golestan province is subject to the high risks of intensified dust phenomenon due to its vicinity to Turkmenistan’s vast deserts, inappropriate management of its northern desert lands, and the dryness of some of its wetlands and borderlands. Therefore, considering the increasing number of intensified dust storm occurrences in Golestan province within the past few years, this study sought to perform statistical and climatic analysis of the phenomenon.  The dust storm occurrences in Golestan province were analyzed based on their spatio-temporal frequency as recorded by seven synoptic weather stations throughout a 10-year period (2013-2022). Moreover, the collected data were checked daily in the form of synoptic codes during eight observations using statistical methods. Finally, the average hourly, monthly, and annual occurrences of dust storms and their frequency for the hot and cold periods in all synoptic stations were calculated using the R software.  The results of the annual analysis of the dust storm revealed that the Incheh-Borun and Maraveh-Tappeh regions experienced the greatest number of dusty days in the entire study area with an average frequency of eight days per year. Moreover, it was found that the highest frequency of dust storms in the province occurred in May, June, and July, and the lowest frequency of dust storms took place in November and December, respectively. Also, the analysis of dust storm occurrences during the statistical period showed that 26.21% and 73.79% of the dusty days originated in extra-local and local origins, respectively. On the other hand, the interpretation of synoptic codes of the statistical period indicated that 79.8% of extra-local dust events in the province occurred from 9:30 A.M. to 18:30 local time and 80.64% of the events took place from 9:00 A.M. 30 to 18:30 local time. Finally, the analysis of the duration of dust events in the study area suggested that currently, the majority of dust storms in Golestan province last for one to two days.

Land use changes have accelerated due to urban development and population growth. The inappropriate pattern of land cover, can cause the destruction of wildlife habitats and overshadow biodiversity. On the other hand, Cervus elaphus maral, as the largest native deer in Iran and its important role in biodiversity, has been given a lot of attention by forest guards. In the present study, the habitat of the Cervus elaphus maral in Golestan province and the imapact of land use on the habitat quality of this species were evaluated using the Habitat Quality model. The results showed that 78.99% of the Golestan province has very low quality, 0.03% has medium quality, 2.15% has good quality and 18.81% has very good quality for Cervus elaphus maral living. The results of the current research can be included in conservation planning by identifying hotspots with high habitat quality and determining the most important areas that need more protection. It is also suggested that land use change scenarios should be considered in habitat quality modeling so that more suitable programs can be made in the matter of planning protection.

Sound natural resource governance arises from the interplay of social and institutional-environmental responses by all stakeholders. This collaborative approach provides a platform for strengthening civil society alongside the government and private sector in natural resource management. Traditional management methods need help to address the increasing complexity of natural resource issues. Consequently, several approaches have emerged in recent years, with good governance being the most prominent. Golestan province, occupying 1.3% of Iran's land area (20,367 square kilometers), is in the country's north. Unfortunately, deforestation, excessive livestock grazing, and other human activities have threatened Golestan's natural resources in recent decades, posing significant challenges. The depletion of natural resources, coupled with environmental crises like floods and droughts, underscores the need for a detailed investigation of the province's natural resource management practices. This study aims to evaluate the alignment of natural resource management in Golestan province with sound governance principles.

Seven indicators were selected for this research based on a comprehensive review of global and regional studies: participation, accountability, responsibility, rule of law and justice, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, and consensus. The eastern cities of Golestan province served as the unit of analysis, with natural resource users and experts in these areas constituting the analysis unit. Cochran's formula determined the sample size, resulting in a target of 189 participants. After receiving and reviewing the questionnaires, 177 valid responses were included for statistical analysis. Additionally, 70 natural resource experts were selected to complete the questionnaire. User samples were randomly selected, while all experts were included (complete counting). Data analysis involved t-tests and analysis of variance.

From the users' perspective, the overall good governance index for natural resources averaged 2.8884, less than the theoretical average. This indicates weak governance according to the study area's natural resource users. The lowest average scores were assigned to the rule of law, justice, transparency, and accountability. Experts expressed higher satisfaction levels with all indicators, with the highest scores (3.46 and 3.42) for accountability and responsibility, respectively. Experts identified efficiency and effectiveness as the most crucial factor for good governance, while users prioritized participation.

The results reveal that the overall good governance index falls below the theoretical average, suggesting relatively weak governance of natural resources from the stakeholders' perspective in the studied area. This research emphasizes the importance of user involvement in natural resource projects, effective utilization of local knowledge, and strengthening cooperatives to improve the region's natural resource governance.

Gully erosion is a water erosion that has a great contribution to land degradation and is known as one of the most important environmental hazards in the world and especially in Iran. In recent years, machine learning techniques and geographic information systems have been highly effective in determining areas sensitive to gully erosion and have increased accuracy and speed in the evaluation and potential of gully erosion and in determining effective factors on gully erosion has also been effective. The loess lands of Golestan Province are more susceptible to water erosion due to sufficient depth and almost uniform silty graining, excessive use, cultivation on sloping lands, and wrong land management so that all types of erosion can be observed in these areas. The most common type of erosion in these sediments is gully erosion. The studied watershed is faced with the increase of dry and abandoned land, land use change, the presence of surplus livestock in the forests, and also the population increase. Therefore, this area is facing an increase in sensitivity to gully erosion, and areas with the potential for gully erosion should be identified and managed. 

The studied watershed with an area of 222,000 ha and an elevation range of 58 to 2168 m is located in the northeast of Golestan Province. The average rainfall of the area is between 224 and 736 mm. In this research, first, the location of the gullies was obtained from the General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Golestan Province. Then, from the total of 1127 gullies position, 70% were randomly classified as training data and 30% as validation data. To determine the effective variables in gully erosion sensitivity, 14 factors were identified and in the next step, the collinearity test between the variables was performed using SPSS software. By using the indices of tolerance coefficient and variance inflation factor, if there is collinearity between the variables, they were removed from the modeling process. Considering the importance of the DEM map and its application in the preparation of various factors of the current research, a DEM was prepared using ALOS satellite images. The layers of slope and aspect are prepared by using a digital elevation model and slope and aspect functions respectively. Slope length index in SAGA GIS software, layers of distance from stream based on the map of stream, and distance from roads based on existing roads, and using the Euclidean distance function in the ArcGIS software was prepared. Stream density and road density layers were obtained based on the map of existing streams and roads in the region and using the line density function in ArcGIS. The lithology layer was extracted from the geological map of the region and the land use layer was obtained from the General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Golestan province. The rainfall map has been prepared using the information from 35 rain gauge stations. First, the average rainfall of 26 years was calculated for each station, and then rainfall zoning was done using the global Kriging Method (due to the lowest RMSE) in ArcGIS. The TPI layer was prepared using the DEM and using the SAGA GIS software. The HAND index is a topographic-hydrological index of the DEM of the nearest drain, representing the hydrological behavior of the watershed. To evaluate the models, the relative performance detection curve (ROC) was used for the predictive power of the models.  

The results showed that there is no co-linearity between the variables and therefore all the variables were used in the modeling process. The relationship between gully erosion and elevation showed that lower elevations are more sensitive than higher elevations and more susceptible to gully erosion near waterways. The results showed that with the increase in drainage density, the sensitivity of gully erosion increases, and the possibility of gully erosion increases. The results showed that the old barracks, shale, and loess have the greatest impact on the sensitivity of gully erosion. The results show a decrease in the sensitivity of gully erosion with a decrease in the HAND index. This result indicates that in the areas where the level of saturation in the watershed level increases, the possibility and sensitivity of gully erosion increases. The results showed that among the types of land use, canals, poor pastures, and agricultural land use have the highest sensitivity to gully erosion. This is even though the forest areas have the lowest sensitivity to this erosion. The results showed that in the rainfall range of 220 to 420 mm, the possibility of gully erosion has increased, and the range of 420 to 500 mm has shown the highest level of sensitivity, and with the increase of rainfall from 500 mm to above, a reduction in the sensitivity of gully erosion has been encountered. One of the reasons for reducing the sensitivity of gully erosion in higher rainfalls is the increase in vegetation and the creation of suitable conditions for landslides. The results showed that the depth of the valley up to 235 meters have increased the probability of gully erosion, and from 235 meters above, it has decreased the probability of erosion. The results showed that the sensitivity of gully erosion increases near roads, and this case shows the effects of road construction and the aggravation of conditions for gully erosion. 

This research was conducted to determine the effective factors on gully erosion and zone its spatial distribution in the northeast of Golestan Province. In this study, by considering 14 important factors and using RF, ANN, and CART models, a sensitivity map of gully erosion was prepared. Because the identification of gully erosion-sensitive areas based on traditional methods and expert opinions do not have acceptable accuracy, it is necessary to use modern machine learning methods. The results showed that the factors of distance from the road and land use are the most important factors affecting the sensitivity of gully erosion, which requires land use management as human activities. The ROC curve showed that the accuracy of the models in estimating areas with gully erosion sensitivity was excellent in the test stage (ANN) and very good in the test and validation stage (RF and CART), which means the excellent performance of the models.

This study was performed to explore the 2020 agricultural sustainability through studying the environmental indicators in Golestan Province, Iran, using data and information acquired from the Agricultural Jihad Organization, Golestan Provincial Water and Wastewater Organization, Iran Meteorological Organization, and the Governorate of Golestan Province. According to the results, chemical pesticide and fertilizer usages, as well as nitrate concentration in groundwater, showed a negative effect whereas the cropping area, rainfall, conservation tillage practices, and cropping diversity showed a positive effect on the environmental indicators. Meanwhile, the highest and lowest weights were obtained respectively for conservation tillage practices (0.16) and cropping area (0.11) based on the application of analytical hierarchical analysis (AHP). Having prioritized the study area, Gonbad Kavus (89%) and Bandar-e-Turkmen (56%) were respectively the best and worst counties in terms of environmental indicators. In addition, conducting a sensitivity analysis with a shifting range of 1-5% showed the indicators have constancy with no priority changes. Finally, the counties of Golestan province were classified into stable, relatively stable, and unstable categories. Taking the findings into account, the sustainability of agriculture in Golestan province can be enhanced by implementing the proposed environmental indicators into the planning process.

In the present study, the phenomenon of dust and the annual and seasonal trends were studied in Golestan province over a period of 18 years (2000-2017). According to the tools and techniques of Remote Sensing and wind dust diagrams, the dust phenomenon was studied. In order to investigate the occurrence of dust, AOD related to MODIS sensor was used. The results show that the highest annual average of AOD (equivalent to 0.321) was indicated in the year 2009 which shows the highest intensity and concentration of dust. Also, in terms of seasonal changes, autumn and winter seasons have a small share of dust concentration. The highest dust concentration in Golestan province is related to summer and especially July. Also, the seasonal wind dust diagrams show that the dust direction is mostly from west and southwest and the role of north winds in dust production is negligible. This result shows that contrary to popular belief that the source of foreign dust in the province is often Turkmenistan, the role of Turkmenistan in the Golestan dust production is small and the dust mass has entered to Iran from the west and from the northern parts of the country to Golestan province.

In the field of natural resource’s utilization and management, the two groups of stakeholders, utilizers and official experts are not quite agreed. It is obvious that each of these two social groups, depending on their interests and duties, have different points of views, as a result different plans for the development and managent. Finding the differences thus, could be effective in decision making and planning. In this study, the views of two groups of utilizers, managers and facilitators in Azadshahr and Gonbad rangelands in Golestan province were taken into account. The focus was on the reasons for low rate of acceptance for multiple-use projects. Required data were gathered through questionnaires and open interviews (consist of 6 indices and 90 items) with members of both groups. The results of questionnaires and interviews were analyzed using Discriminant Analysis (DA) in STATISTICA. Survey shows that utilizers have a different view of about 50.12% from the expert group of executives and managers. The most different issues were institutional, political, social and economic. On environmental issues such as water shortage (12.06%), human resources including literacy and household dimension (12.14%) there was almost agreements. The highest disagreement was found on organization-policy including inadequate government services, insufficient interaction of authorities with local and utilizers, etc. (65.32%). Based on the results, facilitators must take part in educational workshops on the mechanism of implementation of the multiple-use projects to encourage the utilizers to accept and well use of the plans.

Adverse climate change, drought, and floods have a negative impact on natural resources, crops, and livestock production as the main sources of livelihood for the villagers. Therefore, it is important to study the perception of rural communities about the occurrence of climate change and its relationship with a sustainable livelihood. The present study was conducted for this purpose by descriptive-survey research method. In this study, 297 residents Age 35 years and older in 10 villages of the Oghan watershed in Golestan province were surveyed. The data collection tool of the questionnaire was developed by the researcher; its content validity was confirmed using the opinions of university academics and natural resources experts. The results showed that age, number of livestock, history of animal husbandry, length of stay in the village, and income of individuals with their perception of the symptoms of climate change have a positive and significant relationship. Findings of structural equation model evaluation showed a causal relationship between the perception of the occurrence of climate change symptoms and individuals' livelihood changes so that with increasing awareness of villagers about the occurrence of climate change symptoms, their livelihood is facing more changes.

Saline soil contains large amounts of soluble salts. In addition to natural factors affecting soil salinization such as climate, topography, and abundance of evaporative formations in the region, the human factors that result from incorrect management of the agricultural system (such as using low-quality water for irrigation, overuse of chemical fertilizers, the frequency of irrigation, the type of irrigation system, poor soil drainage, etc.), are considered as the main causes of soil salinization (secondary salinity). According to the FAO report (2002), these regionschr('39') area is estimated to be approximately 831 million hectares, out of which 397 million hectares are saline soils, and 434 million hectares are sodic soils. As found by recent researches, the area of saline soils is estimated as 44.5 million hectares in Iran, constituting 27% of the total area of the country. Different methods including the selection of salinity-resistant plants, application of special methods of bed preparing and seed planting that minimize the accumulation of salts around the seeds, the use of larger amounts of irrigation water to leaching salts from the depth of plant roots penetration, and the use of chemical amendments such as sulfur, sulfuric acid, iron sulfate, gypsum, ammonium polyphosphate, calcium polyphosphate, etc., have already been used for reclamation of saline soils. Studies on this issue have often focused on the use of various amendments (chemical and organic matters). However, saline-sodic soils have not been studied based on nanoscale organic modifiers. Having various usages in natural resources and agriculture, including the remediation of soils contaminated with different contaminants such as saline-sodic soils, nanomaterials have found much application in industrial and semi-industrial laboratory scales in recent decades. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of chemical, biological, and Nano-particle solutions on the modification of these soils.

The purpose of this study was the reclamation of saline and sodic soils using chemical, biological, and nanotechnology methods. The study region with an area of ​​about 100 hectares was located in the northwest of Golestan province, between 37° 09chr('39') 18" to 37° 10chr('39') 15" Northern latitude and 54° 25chr('39') 15" to 54° 25chr('39') 30" Eastern longitude. The study was arranged in a completely randomized factorial design by using eight treatments, including 1) control, 2) gypsum, 3) gypsum and livestock manure, 4) livestock manure, 5) nano- livestock manure of 0.03%, 6) nano-livestock manure of 0.06%, 7) nano- livestock manure of 0.06% and gypsum, 8) nano- livestock manure of 0.03% and gypsum. Each treatment was repeated three times. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by one-way analysis of variance and Duncanchr('39')s multi-domain test in the SPSS software.

Prior to the experiment, soil samples were examined in the laboratory, and some soil parameters such as exchange sodium percentage (ESP), acidity (pH), and soil electrical conductivity (EC) were measured. After adding the amendments to the pots, they were leached for 30 days so that this amount of water was added to the soil four times (once every seven days). After leaching, each potchr('39')s ESP, EC, and pH values ​​were measured. The results showed that nano-manure treatments of 0.06% + gypsum and nano-manure of 0.03% + gypsum (at the level of 1%) had the greatest effect on reducing the ESP, and treatments of manure and nano-manure of 0.03% had the greatest effect on reducing EC. It was also found that soil acidity had the greatest decrease under the influence of gypsum and animal manure + gypsum treatments.

The results of the study indicated that the gypsum amendment, along with animal manure, had significant effects on reducing ESP, EC, and pH in micro and nanoscales. Livestock manure was also found to positively reduce ESP, EC, and pH in both nano and micro scales. The applied nano-manure at both levels of 0.06% and 0.03% had a significant effect on improving the soil condition, especially on reducing soil acidity. In general, it could be concluded that the application of organic matter (animal manure) on a nanoscale exerts a greater influence on improving the condition of saline and sodic soils in comparison to that caused via micro-scale, which will be more effective if used in conjunction with gypsum.

Insight into the relationship between plants and environmental characteristics is essential for managing rangeland ecosystems. The present study investigate the effect of soil and topographic factors on the distribution of the most important medicinal plants in Khosh Yeilagh Golestan province. Parameters such as density, frequency and canopy percent were the subjects of the study. Random-systematic method was used through plots establishment along the transect in the study area. The geolocation and gradient levels, altitude and sea level were measured and recorded. Through each transect, soil samples were taken at the center of 3 plots from 0 to 30 cm depth. Physical and chemical properties of soil were then measured. In order to introduce the most effective environmental factor on distribution of medicinal plants, Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) were used in PC-ORD5. The result of CCA showed 53% of the total variation was justified by the first, second and third axes. Elevation, geographic and organic factors with correlation coefficient of -0.520, 0.472 and -0.470, respectively, in the first axis of ordination, the gradient factor with a correlation coefficient of 0.601,-0.568 and -0.558 in the second axis and the sand percent factor with a correlation of 0.400 in the third axis of ordination was introduced as the most effective factors on the distribution of medicinal species in khosh Yeilagh. Obviously in future rehabilitation of the rangelands result of the study could improve the production of the medicinal plants.

Piping erosion is an influential landform of intensified water erosion that interact with each other in the loess-derived soilsof the Province of Golestan (NE Iran). This study attempts to emphasize the use of high-precision data through field surveys and UAV images, and then to establish a threshold to study the factors that affect piping erosion. The present study was carried out using photogrammetric drones in an area of ​​approximately 2700 hectares in the loess lands in the east of the Province of Golestan and identified areas affected by piping erosion. A total of 833 pipes were recorded using the GPS and the orthophoto images from the UAV. Topographic, hydrological, and biological factors were treated as independent variables and piping erosion as dependent variables through statistical analyzes. The topographic factors indicated that the maximum density of piping occurred at altitudes of between 300–350 m, at maximum slope of more than 30%, at slope length less than 5m, and in concave tracts and profile curvatures. Regarding the hydrological factors, the maximum piping density occurred at the maximum numerical value of the topographic wetness index (more than 12), and at the closest distance to waterways (less than 100m). Biological factors indicated that the maximum density of pipes is in the rangelands and where this erosional facies is closest to the roads. Therefore, it can be suggested that an accurate identification of the piping erosion is facilated through ground observations aided by high-precision areal photography and understanding causative factors developing them.

Soil aggregate stability and soil structure considered as the key indicators of range soil health and counted as effective factors in soil erosion control. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of exclosure on the stability of aggregates and soil structure in four areas of Golestan province including Chaharbagh, Incheboron, Gomishan and Maravetapeh. Soil sampling was carried out from two depths of 0-20 and 20-40 cm by digging profile in random-systematic method along transects in each of exclosure and adjacent sites of quadruple areas. Aggregates stability was measured by the method of wet sieving in the laboratory. The results were analyzed statistically using independent and paired samples t-test for exclosure sites and adjacent exclosure sites as well as two corresponding depths, respectively. In the most of studied sites, the aggregate stability values were higher in the surface soil than the deep soil.The results indicated that the effect of rangeland exclosure on morphological changes and soil status indicating positive role in development of soil structure in all studied areas, however, these results were statistically significant only in the Incheboron and Gommishan area in view point of soil aggregate stability. The highest value of soil stability was in the first depth (4.52 mm) of Gomishan exclosure site and the lowest one was in the second depth (1.15 mm) in Gomishan grazing site. The final result showed that regardless of positive role of exclosure in promoting the stability of aggregate, factors such as geographic position of rangeland, climate, vegetation type and grazing conditions as the associated factors affecting the stability of aggregate and soil structure should be considered.

During the past two decades, the attention has been paid to the role of biological crusts in dry and semi-arid ecosystems. According to the roles of soil surface crusts in improving physical and chemical characteristics, and lack of sufficient information on their inherent characteristics, this research can be useful in understanding the mechanism of these crusts. The purposes of this study were investigating the physicochemical characteristics, methods of measuring and computing of these characteristics for physical and biological soils crusts (lichens and moss), studying the characteristics of soil erodibility index and their mutual relationship in the around Aji-Gol lake located in Golestan province. In this study, after laboratory operations for determination of physicochemical parameters, the soil erosion index using empirical relationships was considered. In order to compare the physicochemical characteristics of physical and biological crusts (lichens and moss) in surface soil samples, different levels of significance were investigated using environment package of R software. Based on ANOVA, the differences between variables were considered in the three studied crusts (physical, lichen, and moss). The results of statistical tests for the soil particle erodibility index showed that there was no significant difference between physical crusts–lichens (P≥0.05), but there were significant differences between the physical crusts-moss and moss-lichens (P≤0.05). There were no significant differences among physicochemical characteristics of organic carbon content, EC, aggregate stability, sorption and average particle diameter, and moss-lichen crusts (P≥0.05). With regards to the size particles of the soil texture, there were significant differences among all the particles of clay, silt, and sand belonged to 3 types of crusts (with the exception of moss and lichen in the clay( (P≤0.05).

This survey was carried out to investigate the attitudes of rural communities living in the vicinity of forest areas toward forest land use change. For this purpose, 364 inhabitants in villages from eight counties in Golestan Province were surveyed. Using the survey method, a questionnaire was prepared and administered as the data gathering tool whose validity was confirmed based on expert judgment by university academics and experts working in the field of natural resources. Its reliability was evaluated against the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results revealed that the participants’ attitude toward and their readiness for changing forest land use were slightly above average. Moreover, no significant relations could be established between either age or education level and attitude toward land use change. Meanwhile, no differences were detected between sex and marital status with respect to the research question. This is while farmers and livestock growers showed the highest but civil servants showed the least positive attitude toward changing forest land use. Based on these results, a serious need is felt for improving the villagers’ attitude toward forest lands. In this regard, their knowledge of the economic, social, and environmental functions of forests needs to be elevated. Local NGOs and associations are recommended to be established in order to promote group activities in support of forests among villagers.

In water efficiency studies, the values of runoff, evapotranspiration and range production are the main variables. Rangelands of Golestan province, Iran, have a high potential of run-off due to the geographical location, climate, and destruction of these resources as well as drastic land use change from forests and rangelands to agricultural lands. Therefore, in the present study, in order to determine the best management of rangelands, we developed a rangeland improvement model using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in the Gorganrud Watershed, Golestan Iran. Calibration and validation of model was performed using Sequential Uncertainty Fitting Program (SUFI-2) in the eco-hydrological model SWAT. For this purpose, the SWAT was calibrated and validated for a 31-year period of discharge and 5-year period of range production and then the model was executed for different scenarios of rangeland management. The results showed that the model performance was satisfactory for predicting discharge. The values of Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient were calculated to be 0.72, 0.71 and 0.64 in calibration period and 0.59, 0.48 and 0.53 in validation period for Basirabad, Tilabad and Haji Ghoshan stations, respectively. As well, four range improvement scenarios (mechanical, biological, biomechanical and livestock grazing management) were defined in this study. On average, by applying mechanical, biological, biomechanical, and grazing management scenarios evapotranspiration was increased to 2.3%, 12.8%, 15.5% and 2.8%, respectively, in comparison with actual evapotranspiration. According to the obtained results, the biomechanical scenario was identified as the best one in increasing evapotranspiration in poor and moderate rangelands.

Rangeland insurance can be one of the mechanisms to deal with inevitable risks of natural resources and may be the most appropriate strategy to reduce financial losses. Rangeland insurance in rural and tribal communities could be considered as a new phenomenon. In this research, the factors affecting rangelands insurance demand were investigated in Kalaleh district. The study was a survey research using questionnaires of pastoralists. In the questionnaires, several variables were examined. The target population was all pastoralists that had range management plan. Sample size was determined using Cochran's formula and estimated to be 115 people. In this research, to assess the factors affecting rangeland insurance demand econometrics patterns Logit model was used. Logit model parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood. According to the results, the effects of premium, forage residue, and membership in the council were negatively significant, while other factors were positively significant in rangeland insurance demand. Rangeland insurance can play an important role in range improvement and reclamation as well as increased production of rangelands. Accordingly, the need for implementation of educational and promotional programs to introduce the goals and benefits of rangeland insurance to the insurers in one hand and providing financial aids and improve the conditions for reimbursement of damages to the affected insurers in the other hand could provide the required facilities to help this part of society as well as greater willingness to extend their insurance and encourage other beneficiaries to insure their rangelands.

The operation of sand transport by erosive winds and its sedimentation around the obstacles such as plants leads to the appearance of the eco-geomorphologic phenomenon of nebka dunes in dry seasons of Golestan province. This study aims to identify the physicochemical characteristics of nebka sediments and compare its results with adjacent lands. Hence, the grain size distribution and morphometric characteristics of particles were determined for 30 samples in Sufikam plain in the Eastern border of Caspian Sea. Then, the relationships between the physicochemical properties were compared using Wilcoxon and T-test at 95%. Results showed that the prevailing wind direction is west to east which in our case is from sea to land. Analysis of sand rose graph indicates that the winds in spring and summer blowed the sediments from soil surface. Results showed that there were no significant differences between sorting of particles, fraction of very fine sand, silt, clay, EC, pH and organic carbon of nebka's head samples and its adjacent land. However, results of skewness index, mean diameter of fine sand, medium sand, coarse and very coarse sand, SAR and ESP proved to be statistically significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that the source of sediments is local.