Comparative study of floristic diversity along altitude in the northern slope of the central Alborz Mountains, Iran

Abstract

Moradi H, Attar F. 2019. Comparative study of floristic diversity along altitude in the northern slope of the central Alborz Mountains, Iran. Biodiversitas 20: 305-312. The Alborz is one of two main mountain chains in the north of Iran. The flora and vegetation of the sub-alpine and alpine zone of the central Alborz are less known comparing to the vegetation of lower altitudes with Hyrcanain forests. In this study, floristic composition and life-form spectra were investigated along an altitudinal transect ranging from 2000 m to the alpine and sub-nival peak of Mt. Rostam-Nisht at 4500 m. We compared the floristic diversity of the studied transect with the data obtained from an earlier studied transect in Kheyrud forest. A total of 299 taxa were found in the survey which showed high species diversity in the area. In addition, our results showed remarkable difference in life form categories between lower altitudes (Hyrcanian forests) and sub-alpine and alpine zones.

Variations in Plant Richness, Biogeographical Composition, and Life Forms along an Elevational Gradient in a Mediterranean Mountain

“…The prevalence of hemicryptophytes and chamaephytes in our study system follows our predictions, and it is consistent with their dominant role commonly observed in high mountain ecosystems [6,33,38,40,42,77,107]. In general, it has been observed that the proportion of hemicryptophytes increases with elevation [33,36,40,41,108] in response to increasing precipitation and decreasing temperature [40,108], with this life form being the most dominant at high elevations [109,110]. In accordance with this general pattern, in our study area the hemicryptophytes increased monotonically with elevation (as expected), representing almost 80% of the species at the highest altitudes.…”

Floristic Diversity and Distribution Patterns Along an Elevational Gradient in the Northern Part of the Ardabil Province Rangelands, Iran

“…For instance, the abundance of Festuca ovina, Colpodium parviflorum, Alopecurus vaginatus, Trifolium medium, and Poa pratensis resulted in a large number of hemicryptophytes at 2100-3300 masl elevation. Mota et al (2017) and Moradi and Attar (2019) found that hemicryptophytes are the most dominant life forms at high elevations. The lower disturbance at higher elevations favors hemicryptophytes.…”