Potential habitat modeling for reintroduction of three native plant species in central Iran

Abstract

Potential habitat modeling of endemic species is an appropriate method to maintain biodiversity, ecosystem function and rehabilitation of rangeland ecosystems. Astragalus caragana, A. cyclophyllon and A. podolobus are endemic in Iran's rangelands and some neighboring countries. The three native species could endure environmental stresses due to their distinctive ecophysiological characteristics. They play important roles in sustainable pastures production, recreation and improvement. They suffer severe threat from many factors including; grazing, agriculture and invasive exotic species. We analyzed the potential habitat of three native plant species in central Iran basing on the grid map with the resolution of 1-km. We used inventory records from field surveys, herbarium collections and 22 environmental factors to explore the environmental influences on given species distribution by Maximum entropy (Maxent) model. Maxent is a species distribution model that uses species occurrence and environmental data for predicting potential species. The results of our study indicated species occurrence has strong correlation with environmental factors such as mean temperature of wettest season, elevation and precipitation of coldest season. We evaluated the model accuracy by AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) based on an independent test data set. AUC values indicated the high power of Maxent to create potential habitat map (AUC A. caragana =0.988, AUC A. cyclophyllon =0.927, AUC A. podolobus =0.923). It is important to consider that AUC values tend to be lower for species that have broad distribution scope, such as A. podolobus distribution. Most suitable potential habitat distributions of the three species were predicted in the western and southwestern parts of rangelands in Isfahan province. Visual comparisons of the actual distribution map of the three species with produced Maxent maps represent a good agreement. In general, the model demonstrated that the occurrence of the given species is highly probable when the elevation is between 2,200 and 3,000 m and mean temperature of wettest season less than 3°C. This model, therefore, can be applied to recognize potential sites for rangeland reclamation projects.

Population Status, Distribution, Antioxidant Properties and Antibacterial Activity of Threatened Herb Gentiana kurroo Royle

“…The results showed that the predicted suitable habitats through MaxEnt almost always appeared as over predicted in some areas compared to the realized niche of the species. Because, MaxEnt considers only nichebased presence data, it estimates the species fundamental niche (different from occupied niche) rather than realized niche (Kumar and Stohlgren, 2009;Yang et al, 2013;Ardestani et al, 2015). The overall study provides perfect baseline information for planning conservation and management strategies to protect such unique medicinally important plant species of Himalaya.…”

Comparing Suitable Habitat Models to Predict Rare and Endemic Plant Species Distributions: What are the Limits of the Niche of Cola lorougnonis (Malvaceae) in Cote d'Ivoire?

“…These results demonstrated biological tolerances and habitat preferences for both Cola lorougnonis and Drypetes singroboensis species (Ardestani et al, 2015). The application of a jackknife evaluation procedure allowed the confirmation of the importance of these variables.…”

“…In contrary, the eleven species with AUC ranging from 0.9 and 0.99 are very restricted to climatic variables (Ardestani et al, 2015) Vol. 6, No.…”

Conservation assessment of the endemic plants from Kosovo

“…Anyhow, as most of the threats are anthropogenic, in order of achieving more sustainable solutions, a systematic and interdisciplinary approach on biodiversity conservation has been required (Delanoë et al 1996, Tisdell 2014. For all of the sixteen taxa that have been studied and analysed, and in particular for the twelve of them that are critically endangered (CR), ex situ and in situ conservation programmes need to be combined appropriately and also the reintroduction of the projects is highly recommended (Ardestani et al 2015, Volis 2016.…”