Study of plant species in relation to site edaphic and physiographic factors (Case study: Polur Summer Rangelands, Mazandaran province)

This study is focused on investigation of plant species distribution in relation to edaphic and physiographic factors. For this purpose, after the initial visit and selection of the study area, 23 land units were selected from overlaying the maps of slope, aspect and height using geographic information system (GIS). Within each unit, vegetation sampling was performed with randomized-systematic method along three transects of 100 m length. Ten plots (1m2) were established along each transect at 10 meter intervals. Soil samples were taken from 0-30 centimeter in starting, mean and ending points of each transect. Soil factors such as N, P, organic matter, pH, EC and texture were measured. CANOCO software and redundancy analysis (RDA) were used to examine the relationship between species and environmental factors. The first axis of RDA showed a significant correlation with slope, aspect, sand, silt, P, pH and litter, while the second axis had just a significant correlation with EC.