Relationship between forage production of Artemisia sieberi, Scariola orientalis and Stipa atriseta species with climatic variables in Omidabad rangelands of Fars, Iran

Regardless of rangeland plant production, it is not possible to plan and manage livestock and rangeland. Attention to rangeland forage production is essential for efficient and effective rangeland management. This importance is determined by identifying the relationship between forage production of plants and climatic variables which affect them in the field. For this purpose, the annual forage production values of rangeland index species were measured in Omidabad Eastern site during the years of 1998-2008 for 10 years in the national plan for rangeland assessment of different climatic zones and their re-measurement during the years of 2017-2018 for two years by cutting and weighing in 60 random plots of two square meters along four 300-meter tracts. The amount of rainfall and monthly temperature in this time interval were also calculated using the data of Abadeh meteorological station in all months separately each year. The amount of annual dry forage production of each species as a dependent variable and the amount of rainfall and temperature calculated as independent variables and relationships between them were investigated using a linear multivariate regression program in SPSS software. The results showed that rainfall, winter, and fall temperatures had a significant effect on species production and spring rains as well as the temperature of the growing season, in April and May, alone did not affect the forage production of the species and based on the results research, with the availability of rainfall and temperature data, the annual forage production of the studied species and the annual production of the coming years can be estimated with high accuracy.