assessment of structural characteristics of fertilized patch in rangeland ecosystems (case study: ghareh ghir and maraveh tapeh rangelands of golestan province)

rangeland ecosystem contains various patches with different functions. structural and functional characteristics of rangeland patches are changed by management practices and can be used to interpret management effects. the structural and functional characteristics of fertilized patches in two rangeland ecosystems of ghareh ghir and maraveh tapeh were measured and analyzed in this study. a group of measurable and simple indices of landscape function analysis (lfa) methods were used to evaluate these characteristics. five structural characteristics such as: the number of patches, total patch area, patch area index, landscape organization index and inter patch length mean on the east and western aspects of ghareh ghir and maraveh tapeh were measured. on the basis of statistical analysis, the structural characteristics of patches in the east and western aspects of the two areas (ghareh ghir and maraveh tapeh) were highly significant (p