Investigation Changes of Soil Macro Elements and Minerals of plants with Different Vegetative Life forms in the Northern half of Ardabil province

Abstract: The aim of this study is investigating the changes of macro elements in soil and vegetation based on the different life form with changes in elevation. For this purpose, soil and vegetation sampling was performed in 13 places in the elevation gradient of 300 to 3300 meters in 2016. In each site were placed three transects of 100 meters with 50 meters distance from each other and along each transect were placed  five plots of 1m2.  In Each plot, Vegetation was harvested based on vegetative form including grasses, forbs and shrubs and Soil samples were taken from two depths of 0 to 15 cm and 15 to 30 cm. Then calcium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus and nitrogen were measured for vegetation samples based on life form and soil samples. The amount of macro elements in soil and vegetation in different elevation classes were compared with each other using one-way analysis of variance test. The results showed that the concentration of soil macro elements in different elevation classes has significant difference. Maximum nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and calcium were at the elevations of 3300-3000 m (0.47%), 1500-1200 m (87.8 ppm), 3300-3000 m (57.6 ppm), 3300-3000 m (69.8 ppm) and 3300-3000 m (16.53 meq/l). Also, the macro elements of vegetation were significantly different in different elevation classes. Maximum nitrogen was in the shrubs at 2400-2100 m (3.06%), phosphorus in forbs at 3300-3000 m (548.2 ppm), potassium in forbs at 900-600 m (400.3 ppm), Sodium in shrubs at 300-300 m (58.4 ppm) and calcium in forbs at 0-300 m (261.7 ppm). It seems that the amount of nutrients in vegetation changes by changing amount of these elements in the soil through elevation. The results show that the Soil Macro Elements affect the amount of Minerals of plants. Due to the fact that balance in the amount of Minerals in plants is very important in animal nutrition, knowledge of the amount of these elements in soil and plants will be effective in providing animals with a proper diet and increasing the quantity and quality of livestock products.