Study of biodiversity indices in habitats of Prunus eburnea (Spach) Aitch. & Hemsl in Iran

Prunus eburnea (Spach) Aitch. & Hemsl. is an endemic plant species of Iran-Afghanestan, which has medicinal and nutritional value and distributed in extensive parts of arid and semi-arid ecosystems of Iran. The aims of this study were to investigate the life forms and chorology of associated perennial plant species and biodiversity indices in 52 habitats. Habitats were divided into ten main regions based on main climate, latitude, longitude, phytogeography, altitude, vicinity to other habitats and physiognomy. Some biodiversity indices such as species richness, uniformity, heterogeneity and dominance for each region were measured using PAST software. The results showed that the life form of phanerophyt (48%) and chamaephyt (40%) had the highest percentage of life forms of associated plant species with gray almond in the studied habitats. Perennial plants belonging to the phytogeography of Irano-Touranian region (64%) and Euro-Siberian (13%) had the highest abundance in the habitats of this species, respectively. In a general conclusion, the habitats of this species in the west of the country due to more rainfall and humidity have the greatest species diversity and the number of plant species bases than the central and eastern habitats of the country. In the habitats that are located near the Zagros region of the country, the diversity indices show greater values than the habitats that are located in the Iran-Turanian regions.