Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mojtaba Adabi Ardakani ¹
• maryam morovati ²
• Peyman Karami ³
• Majid Sadeghinia ⁴

¹ MSc Student assessment and land use planning, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ardakan University,Ardakan, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources,Ardakan University, P.O.Box184,Ardakan, Iran Medicinal and Industrial Plants Research

³ Ph D Graduated of environmental science, University of Malayer, Hamedan, Iran

⁴ Department of Nature Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Yazd, IRAN

Abstract

Due to its special ecological conditions, Iran is home to many plants whose organs have medicinal effects for humans and animals. which are called medicinal plants. The purpose of this study is to identify the habitat of medicinal plants in Ardakan city. With this aim, Thymus vulgaris and Ferula assafoetida were selected among medicinal plants that can be harvested in the city. To check the distribution range of the species, the presence points of these species were first collected. Then, the average silt, clay, sand, nitrogen and organic carbon density in the depth of 5 to 15 cm were considered as habitat variables, along with topographic variables, windiness and vegetation. Modeling was done using classification tree and regression models, random forest, multiple tree and logistic regression. The Hammadi model was created based on the weighted average based on the AUC criterion. And the validity of the used models was calculated based on the criteria of sensitivity, specificity, correct classification, wrong classification and AUC criteria. Then it was calculated by applying the threshold limit of the optimal habitat of the species. The results showed that topographical variables played a more important role in the distribution of studied species than soil criteria, and soil nitrogen played a more important role among the variables related to soil than other variables. The area of the thyme habitat was estimated as 103681 hectares and the optimal Anghuzeh habitat as 66519 hectares.

Keywords

• Natural habitat
• Species distribution
• Topography
• Ecological conditions
• Ardakan

Main Subjects

• Ecology