Investigation of development probability of Dorema ammoniacum in arid rangelands of Southern Khorassan regarding environmental conditions using MAXENT

MAXENT model was used to evaluate the probability of Dorema ammoniacum development in rangelands of Southern Khorassan. Presence data of D. ammoniacum was recorded based on field survey and GPS application. Nine environmental information layers were used to model potential habitat of the understudy species. Relationship between species presence and environmental parameters was determined using maximum entropy. Map of species distribution was achieved. Results showed that the probability of D. ammoniacum is higher in regions with the following environmental characteristics; elevation of 1017-1933 m, average temperature of 13.96 to 15.17 ºC, average precipitation of 112- 131 mm, slope of 0-14% and LST range between -4 to 10 ºC. An AUC of 92 demonstrated that MAXENT is a suitable model for prediction of D. ammoniacum distribution and potential habitat.