Ecological Influence of Forest Roads on Biodiversity (Case Study: Zilky Forest Management Plan in Roudbar Province)

Subject Areas : environmental management

Morad Hajipour ¹ (M.Sc. Graduated student in Silviculture and Forest ecology, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran)
Farshad Keivan Behjou ² (Professor, Department of Forest Sciences and Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran*)
Ramin Naghdi ³ (Professor, Department of Forestry and Forest Economics, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Somehsara, Iran)
Zeinab PourGholi ⁴ (Ph.D. Student of Forest silviculture and Ecology, University of Gorgan, Gorgan, Iran)
Sedighe Ghanaei ⁵ (Research in statute of forest and Rangeland,Agriculture Research,Eduction and Eextension Organization(AREEO),Tehran,Iran)

Received: 2017-07-13 Accepted : 2018-12-12 Published : 2021-03-21

Keywords: downstream, upstream, Biodiversity, Forest Roads, Zilky Forest, richness,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: Road construction in forest ecosystems cause the microclimate, light regime to be changed and thus reduce light competition adjacent to the roads that provide the access to solar radiation for a variety of the plants. So the density and stock of plants around the road is increased by fast-growing and shade intolerant species which changes the diversity of plant species in the forest ecosystem. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ecological effect of forest roads on wooden tree and shrub species in Zilakyrood region of Roodbar.Material and Methods: In this study, a part of forest roads in Series 4 of Zilakirood at the age of 18 was selected in terms of homogeneity of height, aspect and slope changes and species composition status with sufficient length (500 m). In this road, 6 transects were designed and  parallel plots were implemented at intervals of 1, 5, 10, 30 and 50 meters, with dimensions of 2 in 10 meters. The number and type of wooden tree and shrub species were sampled. Diversity index of Simpson, richness index of Menhinic and evenness index of Pilow were calculated using Ecological methodology software. To compare the parameters of species biodiversity, after normalization of data, paired t-test was used and to determine whether the differences in sample plots are significant or not, ANOVA and Duncan test was used.Findings: The results of this study showed that a there is no significant difference between downstream and upstream edge of the forest roads in terms of Simpson diversity index, Menhinic richness and evenness Pilow indices (to a depth of 50 m in Forest). But there is a significant difference in terms of wood species richness in plots between various distances of downstream and upstream of roads in the study area at 95% probability. Also, the highest species richness was at the downstream and upstream of roads, respectively at the distance of 5 and 1 meter from the edge of the road.Discussion and Conclusions: Since the roads as the access routes to forest ecosystems are important both for humans and invasive plant species, road ecology studies is very important and valuable to monitor and control the impact of forest roads on biodiversity. So, the knowledge about the flora and edaphic conditions is essential to minimize the damage to vegetation and soil in the region influenced by forest roads.

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