Estimating Plant Biomass by Using Non-Destructive Parameters in Arid Regions (Case Study: Inche-Broun Winter Rangelands, Golestan, Iran)

Abstract

Plant biomass is an important factor for determining arid and semi-arid<br />rangelands capacity. Due to the lack of proper and annual sampling of rangelands, there are<br />no suitable data to determine biomass, range condition and proper range management<br />operations. Plant biomass is one of the measurable attributes that can be assessed in<br />rangeland studies. Since the clip and weight method is destructive and time-consuming,<br />green biomass was estimated by using dimensional parameters (Plant Allometry) including<br />canopy cover, length and width of diameters. Field sampling was done using seventy 2×2<br />m quadrats along five 100 m transects. The data were analyzed by stepwise regression. The<br />results showed that the fresh and dry biomass showed significant positive correlations with<br />canopy cover, the length and width of diameters of Halocnemum strobilaceum shrub<br />(p<0.05). The results of stepwise regression showed that just canopy cover and diameter<br />length were remained in the final model, so that 80.2% of biomass variations were<br />explained by canopy cover and diameter length.