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

Subject Areas : environmental management

Aylin Ashouri Rad ¹ , Razieh Rahimi ² , Bahman Shams Esfandabad ³

1 - Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran * (Corresponding Author).
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.

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