Modeling habitat suitability for Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Sorkheh Hesar national park

Subject Areas : environmental management

Aylin Ashouri Rad ¹ (Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran)
Razieh Rahimi ² (Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran * (Corresponding Author).)
Bahman Shams Esfandabad ³ (- Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Arak Branch, Arak, Iran)

Received: 2017-04-18 Accepted : 2017-08-30 Published : 2017-12-22

Keywords: Goitered Gazelle, Sorkheh Hesar national park, Habitat suitability, MaxEnt,

Abstract :

Abstract Background and Objective: Sorkheh Hesar national park is one of Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) habitat. This species moved to specific regions because their main habitat destroyed or invaded by the humans. To protect and manage this species, it is very essential to evaluate and modeling its habitat suitability and also to determine the most important factors in attracting such species. Method: In this research the habitat suitability for Goitered Gazelles is examined and modeled, using the Maximum Entropy method in autumn. For modeling, 33 presence points and 15 habitat variables modeled using MaxEnt software. The rate of the AUC=0.949 shows the high reliability of the model in separating suitable habitats from unsuitable ones. Findings: The results show that the distance from water sources is the most influential variable on the habitat suitability of Goitered Gazelles in Sorkheh Hesar national park, in essence, the suitability of the habitat decreases for longer distances from water sources. There is a higher probability of the species presence in the northern lands with less than 25 degrees in slope. Furthermore, the results show that Goitered Gazelles are more likely to present in areas with Artemisia spp. and Astragalus spp. plants. Discussion and Conclusion: Habitat suitability for Goitered Gazelles is prepared and 5.97% of the studied region’s area (1,170 ha) is marked as suitable habitat for Goitered Gazelles. Considering the importance of water source and the types of vegetation Goitered Gazelles consumes supervision of water source and controlling the import of livestock are some of the important actions that have to be done for managing the habitat.

References:

1. Karami, M. Ghadirian, T. Faizolahi, k. (2012). <>. Department of Environment of Iran. Pp184 (Persian)


2. Boom Abad consulting engineers. (2003). Environmental Management Plan, Jajrood Protected Area. Department of Environment of Iran (Persian)

 

3. Kazemijahandizi, E. (2010). Ecology of Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Sorkh-e-Hesar NationalPark, Tehran province. Master's thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. pp. 1, 73-78 (Persian)


4. Kazemijahandizi, E. Kaboli, M. Karami, M. Soufi, M. (2015). Determination of carrying capacity and nutritional dietary of Gazella subgutturosa in Sorkh-e-Hesar NationalPark, Tehran province, Iran. J.Env. Sci. Tech., Vol 17, No. 1. Pp. 135-143 (Parsian)


5. Adibi, M, A. (2013). Evaluation and Modelling of Caracal caracal Habitat Using MaxEnt Method (A Case study: Kavir National Park). . Master's thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. pp. 1, 5, 6, 86 (Persian)


6. Jamalimanesh, A. Amoeian, A. Radnezhad, H. Moshtaghi, M. (2014).  Habitat suitability evaluation for Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) Using ENFA Method in Bamu National Park, Fars Province.  First National Conference on Environmental Assessment and Management Planning in Iran.  Department of Environment of Hamadan Province. (Persian)


7. Hosseini, G. (2013) Habitat suitability evaluation for Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Haftad Qolleh Protected Area, Markazi provincein central Iran. . Master's thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. pp.1,4,70 (Persian)


8. Ramezanzadeh, S. (2012) Habitat suitability evaluation for Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) Using ENFA Method in Salook National Park. Master's thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Gilan Province, Iran. pp. 1, 104-106. (Persian)


9. Akbarnejad, F. (2014). Habitat suitability evaluation for Persian Gazelle (A Case study: Golestan National Park). Master's thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Gilan Province. Pp. 1, 50-55. (Persian)


10. Bagherirad, E., Abdulrasoul, S., Norhayati, A., Maimon, A., Erfanian, B. (2014). Predicting habitat suitability of the goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa subgutturosa) using presence-only data in Golestan National park, Iran. International Journal of Biological Sciences and Applications, 1(4):124-136       


11. Akbari, H. Behroozi, B. Hasanzade, B. (2008). Investigation on Habitat Suitability of Gazella Subgutturosa in Kalmand-Bahadoran Protected Area in Yazd Province Jurnal of Environmental studies. Vol 34. No. 46. Pp113-118 (Persian)  


12.   Faghihi, F. Karimian, A, A. Sadeghian, F. Khabari, Z. (2013). Habitat selection of Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Kalmand-Bahadoran protected area. Third international Conference on Environmental Planning and Management. University of Tehran (Persian)


13. Anderson, R.P. and Gonzalez, I. (2011). Species-specific tuning increases robustness to sampling bias in models of species distributions: An implementation with Maxent. Ecological Modelling 222(15): 2796-2811


14. Phillips, S.J. A brief tutorial on Maxent, versions: 3.3.1. Available online:  http://cs.princeton.edu/~schapire/maxent/ (accessed on August 19, 2009)


15. Phillips, S.J., Anderson, R.P, Schapire, R.E. (2006). Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling 190:231-259


16. Hernandez, P.A., Graham, C.H., Master, L.L., Albert, D.L. (2006). The effect of sample size and species characteristics on performance of different species distributions modeling methods. Ecography, 29, 773-785


17. Pearson, R.G., Raxworthy, C.J., Nakamura, M., Peterson, A.T. (2007). Predicting species distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar. J. Biogeogr. 34,102-117


18. Wisz, M.S., Hijmans, R.J., Li, J., Peterson, A.T., Graham, C.H., Guisan, A. (2008). NCEAS Predicting Species Distributions Working Group. Effects of sample size on the performance of species distributions models. Diversity Distrib, 14, 763-773


19. Sarhangzadeh, J., Yavari, A.R., Hemami, M.R., Jafari, H.R, Shams-Esfandabad, B. (2013). Habitat suitability modeling for wild goat (Capra aegagrus) in a mountainous arid aera, central Iran. Caspian J. Env. Sci. Vol. 11 No. 1 pp. 41-51


20. Morovati, M. (2014). Habitat suitability evaluation for Acinonyx jubatus venaticus Using MaxEnt Method and predicting the future distribution of it in Iran (A case Study: Dare-Anjir Wildlife Refuge, Yazd Province). PhD thesis in Environmental Science. Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. pp.115-118 (Persian)


21. Engler, R., Guisan, A., Rechsteiner, L. (2004). An improved approach for predicting the distribution of rare and endangered species from occurrence and pseudo-absence data. J. Appl. Ecol. 41,263-274


22. Baldwin, R.A. (2009). Use of Maximum Entropy Modeling in Wildlife Research. Entropy, 11, 854-866


23. Phillips, S.J. (2010). Species Distribution Modeling for Conservation Educators and Practitioners. Exercise American Museum of natural History, Lessons in Conservation.


24. Dehghani, M. Parvaneh, E. (2009) Protein quality of consuming forage of Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Kalmand-Bahadoran Protected area in Yazd Province. Iranian Jurnal of Biology. Vol. 22. No. 4. Pp.594-598 (Persian)