Damageable degree of two mountainous rangeland habitats based on soil erosion Case study: summer rangeland of Javeherdeh (Ramsar)

Soil erosion is one of the imminent factors to soil and water resources of country. As since the role of vegetation cover on soil conservation in vary environmental situation is different, so in this research, two aspects of northwest and northeast from the highest upland of mountain watershed in northern Alborz (Javaherdeh) were chosen. Rangeland health and soil erosion have been evaluated by Dauben Maire and empirical PSIAC methods in two types of shrubland and grassland. In order to determine the influence of factors on soil erosion and rangeland health, data have been analyzed by multi regression and mean comparison between two habitats have been done by T-test method. The results showed that there is a strong significant relationship between soil erosion and rangeland health in both habitats. It also showed that soil erosion have significant correlation with vegetation cover and litter in grassland and also with vegetation cover and soil conservation in shrubland. Rangeland health also showed a significant correlation with slope, total vegetation cover and total range plant production in grassland and with cover percentage of perennial grass, shrub and basal area in shrubland. The rangeland health degree was not different between two habitats but the rate of soil erosion was significantly different in two areas.