Studying Biodiversity of Plant Associations in Mount On Ebn-e-Ali in Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the biodiversity ofplant associations in On Ebn-e-Ali Mountain in Tabriz and its relationship to various biodiversity indices. Four plant associations including 1)<em> Noaea mucronata- Poetum bulbosa</em>, 2)<em> Noaea mucronata- Brometum tomentellus</em>, 3) related to bush form as well as <em>Poeto bulbosa-Brometum tomentellus </em>and4)<em> Brometo </em><em>danthonia - Brometum tomentellus</em> related to grass form were recognized using Braun-Blanquet and cluster analysis methods in the study area. The biodiversity of different plots was measured based on Richness, Dominance, Evenness, Equitability, Shannon-Weiner, Simpson, Menhinick, Margalef, Fisher's alpha, Brillouin, Berger-Parker and Chao-1 indices in 2017. Associations of 4 and 1 with 19.25 and 14.25 had the highest and lowest richness values, respectively. All of biodiversity variables had strong correlation with the first axes of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The PCA axes 1 and 2 accounted for 90.8% and 6.2% of the total variation, respectively. The results indicated that high plant diversity in<em> Brometo danthonia- Brometum tomentellus</em> (association 4) was due to the high degree of evenness and in <em>Poeto bulbosa- Brometum tomentellus</em> (association 3) caused by the high degree of richness. However, high degree of dominance in <em>Noaea mucronata- Poetum bulbosa</em> and <em>Noaea mucronata- Brometum tomentellus</em> (associations 1 and 2) had led to reduction of their biodiversity. The results showed that there were 75 species belonging to 65 genera and 30 families and 62, 12 and 1 species belonged to dicotyledons, monocotyledons and gymnosperm, respectively. Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicacea, Caryophyllaceae and Papilionaceae families comprised 59% of plant species in the study area.