Multiple Uses of Rangelands in Alborz Mountain (Iran)

The most precious ecological function of rangelands is the conservation of soil and water as well as supplying forage for domestic and wild animals. Such an ecological bio habitat, or in the other words the profession of rangelands, has been subject to disorders for the variety of reasons since many years ago. Floods, hungry animals and desertification are the consequences of such disorders. Therefore, the rangeland managers have suggested the multiple usages of rangelands based on their existing talent and efficiency which is called ”rangeland suitability”. In this research, based on bio-diversity potentials of the region, the recognition and functions of plants of Alborz Mountain rangelands have been considered as rangeland management tools. The sampling has been carried out in work units (combination of traditional systems in plant types) randomly-systematically by setting ten 50 m transects and putting down a metal bar. In this way, the relative frequency of medicinal and nectarous rangeland plants in work units has been evaluated. Planning for multiple usage of rangelands were performed based on two criteria of suitability of medicinal and nectarous plants, 1991 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) method, and using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the scale of 1:50,000. The best-growing habitat of the plants was selected based on the modeling. By proving the existence of environmental gradient, one can recommend the above methods to study the environmental factors as complementary to incarnation models theories.