برآورد تراكم جمعيت و استفاده از زيستگاه هوبره آسيايي ﴿Chlamydotis macqueenii ﴾ در دشت عباس آباد نائين

چكيده انگليسي :

Population Density and Habitat Use of Asiatic Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii in Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge Babak Basmenji b basmenji@na iut ac ir Date of Submission 2011 04 12 Department of Natural Resources Isfahan University of Technology Isfahan 84156 83111 Iran Degree M Sc Language Persian Supervisors Assist Prof Mahmoud reza Hemami mrhemami@cc iut ac ir Assist Prof Mansoureh Malekian mmalekian@cc iut ac irAbstractAsiatic houbara bustard recently proposed as a full species Chlamydotis macqueenii previouslysubspecies Chlamydotis undulate macqueenii is one of the valuable species of arid and semi aridregions of Iran which is classified as Vulnerable by IUCN Houbara populations reportedly havesteadily declined in recent decades throughout their range This decline is thought to be due to theextension of agricultural land overgrazing by domestic animals and hunting Habitat loss isbelieved to be the most importance reason affecting the bird s population on its breeding andwintering grounds and on its migration routes Large populations of wintering houbaras occur incentral steppes of Iran However little is known about the ecology of this species in Iran Knowledge on population densities and habitat associations of threatened species are essential forlong term conservation and management of these species The current study aimed to estimatepopulation density and habitat use of Asiatic houbara in Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge We useddistance sampling line transect for density estimation in Dasht e Abbasabad 31500 ha Where inlocated in northern part of the Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge Houbara density was estimated at 0 34individual Km 2 confidence intervals 0 21 0 57 Three habitat types were recognized in Dasht eAbbasabad based on vegetation types including Artemisia Artemisia Zygophylum and Haloxylon Habitat variables including species richness total vegetation percent cover percent cover ofdominant bush and shrub species and percent cover of gravel and bare soil were measured usingrandomly placed 10 10 m plots Mean vegetation percent cover SD was 8 6 0 11 forArtemisia 10 7 0 14 for Artemisia Zygophylum and 8 6 0 12 for Haloxylon vegetation type Toassess habitat use plots were located in all of houbara presence points and also pellet index andpaired plots were located approximately about 500 m of them Results of habitat use indicated thathoubara pellet density in Artemisia Zygophylum habitat types was less than Artemisia orHaloxylon suggesting houbara prefers low vegetation density at fine scale In order to betterunderstand species density in the area raw data collected by Hemami et al in 2007 were alsoanalysed These data were collected from 15 plains in Nain Khour o Biyabanak and Ardestan in anarea of about 200 000 hectares The plains were divided into three habitat types based onvegetation types including Artemisia Artemisia zygophylum and Haloxylon and houbara densitywas calculated in each types Results showed that houbara density in Artemisia was 0 5 Confidence interval 0 32 0 76 in Artemisia Zygophylum was 0 47 Confidence interval 0 32 0 76 and in Haloxylon was 0 26 Confidence interval 0 15 0 45 individual per Km2 Also data ofAbbas Abad in 2007 analyzed separately for comparison with 2009 Results showed that houbaradensity in 2007 in Abbas Abad plains was 0 61 Confidence interval 0 36 1 03 individual perKm2 Further group size of houbara decreased from 2 8 in 2007 to 1 68 in 2009 Severe winter in2008 may have been the main cause of the population decline Increasing the size of the protectedarea and increasing the number of the guards especially during the breeding season may also benecessary in order to improve the protection of the species in the region Keywords Asian houbara population estimate habitat use Abbas Abad Wildlife Refuge

باسمنجي، بابك

برآورد تراكم جمعيت و استفاده از زيستگاه هوبره آسيايي ﴿Chlamydotis macqueenii ﴾ در دشت عباس آباد نائين