Spatial Analysis of Central Zagros Forest Fragmentations for Conservation and Restoration Purposes (A Case Study: Posht kuh Forests, Fereydoonshahr, Isfahan Province)

In the current study, conservation strategies were employed for the spatial analysis of forest fragmentation and field assessment approaches in a forest landscape of Central Zagros, in the western part of Isfahan province, Iran. Vegetation and soil properties were accordingly studied in 15 forest sites with various densities including dense, semi-sparse and sparse-forests with 839.2 km2. In the Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) method, 11soil surface indicators were assessed from each patch and inter-patch zones along the established transects to obtain three functional indices including soil-stability, infiltration and nutrient-cycling. In the health method, assessors rated 17 indicators to evaluate three functional attributes of  ecosystems including soil and site-stability, biotic-integrity and hydrologic-function. Land use map of the study area was produced using Landsat OLI (2016) to measure the spatial distribution of fragmentation. The results of LFA showed that the stability and nutrient-cycling indices of the dense-forest sites were 72.4 and 57.9%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in other lands (p < 0.05). According to the health results, soil surface loss, invasive plants and soil surface resistance to erosion were the most important factors influencing the health of the sites. The values of normalized fragmentation in dense-forest and sparse-forest areas were 54% and 96.3%, respectively. According to the obtained results, the combined field-based and remotely-sensed approaches applied in this research could be used to assess the functionality of Zagros forests.