The effects of precipitation variability on the canopy cover of forage species in arid rangelands, Iran

Abstract

This research was conducted to monitor changes in canopy cover of typical species during a 10-year period in the part of arid rangelands, to find out the relationship between two important climate variables (precipitation and temperature) and canopy cover changes. For that reason, canopy cover percentages of six dominant perennials and all annual plant species combined were measured during a 10-year period at phenological maturity of plant in thirty 2 m × 2 m plots which were placed along two 250-m transect lines. The results demonstrated that the maximum canopy cover for water year 2006–2007 (wet year) and the minimum value for water year 2012–2013 (drought) were 15 and 5.5%, respectively. The canopy cover was modeled by linear regression in which precipitation and temperature variables were considered independent variables. April precipitation explained 65% of changes in the canopy cover percentage of Artemisia sieberi at 95% confidence level (RRMSE = 0.26 and MAE = 0.49). The best simple linear regression models for estimating canopy cover percentages of Stipa barbata and Zygophyllum eurypterum corresponded to cumulative 4-month precipitation from March to June and March precipitation respectively, representing 77% (at 99% confidence level) and 67% (at 95% confidence level) of changes correspondingly. Considering the dominance of A. sieberi, S. barbata, and Z. eurypterum in floristic composition of the study area, it can be concluded that most changes in canopy cover of the studied rangeland are predicted by variability of precipitation during growing seasons.