Plant species and functional groups response to exclosure in Lazour rangeland of Tehran province

The study of  vegetation dynamics under grazed and non-grazed rangelands is one of the most important prerequisites for range improvement. In this research, vegetation composition and the vegetation functional groups were compared in an exclosure site (livestock excluded for six years) and grazed area in semi-steppe rangelands in Tehran province. Systematic random sampling technique through the use of transects and quadrats was employed to collect vegetation data. Results showed that there were 23 species common in both areas of exclosure and grazing while 4 and 8 species were restricted to exclosure and grazing areas, respectively. Results of t-test showed that exclosure significantly increased the percentage of canopy cover of some desirable species such as Agropyron intermedium, Bromus tomentellus, Festuca ovina, and Thymus Fedtschenkoi (p<0.01) Also, the rate of canopy cover of grasses, perennials and hemicryptophytes  significantly increased in exclosure area (p<0.01). Moreover, exclosure significantly increased the canopy cover percentage of some vegetation families such as Gramineae, Lamiaceae, and Rubiaceae. However, it significantly decreased the canopy cover percentage of Apiaceae family. The results of this study showed that grazing performance for six years had produced favourable changes in vegetation composition of the area. Another result of this study is the use of hemicryptophyte and trophyte functional groups to detect grazing rate in summer rangelands. So that, the predominance of hemicryptophytes and the reduction of trophytes indicate the grazing intensity of the low to medium, and the increase of trophytes and decrease of hemicryptophytes in the plant composition indicates a high grazing intensity of the livestock.