<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of disturbance degree on the species richness and species diversity of oak forests in the Kurdistan Province (Iran). The study ran on three treatments: undisturbed, moderately disturbed, and highly disturbed. For each treatment, there were selected three forest patches with similar physiographic conditions and on each patch there were specified three 400 m<sup>2</sup> plots for recording floristic data. The species’ name and the abundance of herbaceous species were recorded on 5 micro plots sized 1.5 × 1.5 m for each sample. Menhinick, Margalef, the number of species indices and also <italic>rarefaction</italic>, <italic>jackknife</italic> methods and species abundance distribution models were used to estimate the herbaceous species richness for the three treatments. The results showed that all the richness indices had the highest values for the undisturbed forests and the lowest values for the highly disturbed ones. Based on all models, undisturbed forests were showed more diverse than highly disturbed area. Generally the negative impact of human activities (wood cutting and grazing) on the herbaceous species richness was found much stronger in the highly disturbed forests and in moderately disturbed forests compared the undisturbed ones. With increasing destruction intensity, the herbaceous species richness in the oak forests decreased dramatically.</p></abstract>

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of disturbance degree on the species richness and species diversity of oak forests in the Kurdistan Province (Iran). The study ran on three treatments: undisturbed, moderately disturbed, and highly disturbed. For each treatment, there were selected three forest patches with similar physiographic conditions and on each patch there were specified three 400 m2 plots for recording floristic data. The species’ name and the abundance of herbaceous species were recorded on 5 micro plots sized 1.5 × 1.5 m for each sample. Menhinick, Margalef, the number of species indices and also rarefaction, jackknife methods and species abundance distribution models were used to estimate the herbaceous species richness for the three treatments. The results showed that all the richness indices had the highest values for the undisturbed forests and the lowest values for the highly disturbed ones. Based on all models, undisturbed forests were showed more diverse than highly disturbed area. Generally the negative impact of human activities (wood cutting and grazing) on the herbaceous species richness was found much stronger in the highly disturbed forests and in moderately disturbed forests compared the undisturbed ones. With increasing destruction intensity, the herbaceous species richness in the oak forests decreased dramatically.

Effect of man-made disturbances on understory plant richness of oak forests in Iran

Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources

Folia Oecologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of disturbance degree on the species richness and species diversity of oak forests in the Kurdistan...

Effect of man-made disturbances on understory plant richness of oak forests in Iran

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 61 - 68

Received: Jan 14, 2017

Accepted: Oct 06, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/foecol-2017-0008

Keywords
disturbance, diversity, oak forest, understory vegetation

© 2017 Javad Eshaghi Rad et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Effect of man-made disturbances on understory plant richness of oak forests in Iran

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 61 - 68

Received: Jan 14, 2017

Accepted: Oct 06, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/foecol-2017-0008

Keywordsdisturbance, diversity, oak forest, understory vegetation

© 2017 Javad Eshaghi Rad et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
disturbance, diversity, oak forest, understory vegetation