Nova Biologica Reperta

Habitat distribution and connectivity modelling of Centaurea glastifolia L. in northwest of Iran

Authors

Kamran Almasieh 1
Kazem Negaresh 2
Mohammad Mahmoodi 3

1 Department of Nature Engineering, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

2 Department of Horticulture, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

3 Botany Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.52547/nbr.8.2.142
Abstract
Centaurea glastifolia, a plant species from the Asteraceae family, is distributed in the Northwest of Iran. This study carried out to determine suitable habitats and habitat connectivity of Centaurea glastifolia in three Provinces of West Azarbayejan, East Azarbayejan and Ardabil. Seven habitat variables and 36 presence points were selected for habitat modelling using six habitat distribution models of GLM, GAM, MARS, MaxEnt, RF and GBM. The ensemble map resulting from these models was used for habitat connectivity modelling using electrical-circuit method. Results of habitat evaluation revealed that suitable habitats of the species studied were mainly located in West Azarbayejan and east of Ardabil Provinces, for which distance from agricultural lands, mean annual temperature and distance from rangelands had the highest contribution to the model. Habitat connectivity modelling showed that the current density movement was highest in West Azarbayejan. Current density movement between East and Southeast of Ardabil was evaluated to be significant, whereas the current density movement between West Azarbayejan and Ardabil Provinces was relatively low. The high current density movement in West Azarbayejan indicates the species’ high dispersal ability in expanding its range across the area. The results of the current study could facilitate understanding of the distribution and dispersal of Centaurea glastifolia.


Keywords

Habitat distribution and connectivity modelling of Centaurea glastifolia in Northwest of Iran
Alavi, S.J., Ahmadi, K., Hosseini, S.M., Tabari, M. & Nouri, Z. 2019. The response of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) to climate change in the Caspian Hyrcanian Mixed Forest ecoregion. Regional Environmental Change 19: 1495-1506.
Alignier, A., Ricci, B., Biju-Duval, L. & Petit, S. 2013. Identifying the relevant spatial and temporal scales in plant species occurrence models: The case of arable weeds in landscape mosaic of crops. Ecological Complexity 15: 17-25.
Almasi, N., Karamian, R. & Karimi, F. 2015. Antioxidant and antibacterial activity of the methanolic Centaurea L. species (Asteraceae) from Iran extracts of three. Journal of Plant Research 28: 224-234. (In Persian).
Almasieh, K., Zoratipour, A. Negaresh, K. & Delfan-Hasanzadeh, K. 2018. Habitat quality modelling and effect of climate change on the distribution of Centaurea pabotii in Iran. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research 16: e0304.
Altundağ, E. & Gürdal, B. 2008. Anatomical characteristics of Centaurea glastifolia L. (Asteraceae) used as folk medicine in east Anatolia. Journal of Pharmacy of Istanbul University 40: 57-64.
Araújo, M.B. & Guisan, A. 2006. Five (or so) challenges for species distribution modelling. Journal of Biogeography 33: 1677e1688.
Araújo, M.B. & New, M. 2012. Ensemble forecasting of species distributions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 22: 42-47.
Araújo, M.B. & Peterson, A.T. 2012. Uses and misuses of bioclimatic envelope modeling. Ecology 93: 1527e1539.
Ardestani, E.G., Tarkesh, M., Bassiri, M. & Vahabi, M.R. 2015. Potential habitat modeling for reintroduction of three native plant species in central Iran. Journal of Arid Land 7: 381-390.
Bagheri, H., Ghorbani, A., Zare Chahouki, M.A., Jafari, A. & Sefidi, K. 2019. Spatial distribution modelling of two species of Limonium iranicum and Aeluropus littoralis using regression logistic (case study: Kavir Mighan rangelands in Arak). Journal of Rangeland 13: 560-569. (In Persian).
Bazrmanesh, A., Tarkesh, M., Bashari, H. & Poormanafi, S. 2019. Effect of climate change on the Ecological Niches of the climate of Bromus tomentellus Boiss using Maxent in Isfahan province. Journal of Range and Watershed Management 71: 857-867. (In Persian).
Blach-Overgaard, A., Svenning, J.C., Dransfield, J., Greve M. & Balslev, H. 2010. Determinants of palm species distributions across Africa: the relative roles of climate, non-climatic environmental factors, and spatial constraints. Ecography (Cop.) 33: 380e391.
Borna, F., Tamartash, R., Tatian M.R. & Gholami V. 2020. Predicting distribution habitat of Artemisia aucheri using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (Case study: Summer Rangeland of Baladeh, Nour). Iranian Journal of Rangeland and Desert Research 27: 98-111. (In Persian).
Bremer, K. 1994. Asteraceae: Cladistics and Classification. Timber Press, Portland. 752 pp.
Brown, J.L. 2014. SDMtoolbox: a python-based GIS toolkit for landscape genetic, biogeographic, and species distribution model analyses. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5: 694-700.
Crooks, K.R & Sanjayan, M. 2006. Connectivity conservation. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. 730p.
Esfanjani, J., Zare Chahouki, M.A., Rouhani, H., Mohammad Esmaeli, M. & Behmanesh, B. 2017. Suitability habitat modeling species using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) in rangelands Chaharbagh of Golestan province, Iran. Iranian Journal of Rangeland and Desert Research 23: 516-526. (In Persian).
Eskildsen, A., Roux, P.C., Heikkinen, R.K., Høye, T.T., Kissling, W.D., Pöyry, J., Wisz, M.S. & Luoto, M. 2013. Testing species distribution models across space and time: high latitude butterflies and recent warming. Global Ecology and Biogeography 22: 1293-1303.
Fick, S.E. & Hijmans, R.J. 2017. Worldclim 2: New 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 37: 4302-4315. www.worldclim.org [accessed on 20 May 2019].
FRWMO (Forest, Range and Watershed Management Organization of Iran). 2010. Iranian Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization National Land use/Land cover map.
Ghaedi, Z., Saberi-Pirooz, R., Ebrahimi, E., Badri. S. & Ahmadzadeh, F. 2020. Genetic diversity within the Iranian spiny-tailed lizard and predicting species distribution in climate change conditions. Nova Biologica Reperta 7: 192-205. (In Persian).
Ghahremaninejad, F., Fereidounfar, S. & Mozaffarian, V. 2012. Centaurea kabirkuhensis, a new name for Centaurea procera Mozaff. (Asteraceae). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie B 114: 133-134.
Guisan, A. & Zimmermann, N.E. 2000. Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling 135: 147-186.
Hamzeh’ee, B., Koshnevis M., Ashouri, P., Mozaffarian, V. & Ravanbakhsh, H. 2020. The effect of fire on vegetation diversity indices, a case study: Sirachal research station. Nova Biologica Reperta 7: 92-105. (In Persian).
IRIMO (Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorological Organization). 2017. Climate data-base, Iranian cities, from 1993 to 2017.
Jafari, S.M., Zarre, S., Alavipanah, S.K. & Ghahremaninejad, F. 2014. Exploring the generality of associations between plant functional traits: evidence within ecological groups along an altitudinal gradient in Hyrcanian forest. Plant Species Biology 29: e31-e39.
Jeffrey, C. 2007. Compositae, Introduction with key to tribes. In: Kadereit, J.W. & Jeffrey, C. (eds.), The families and genera of vascular plants, Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 61-87.
Jueterbock, A. 2015. ‘Maxent Variable Selection’ vignette. 10p.
Khalasai Ahvazi, L. & Zare Chahouki, M.A. 2016. Preparing the distribution of Seidlitzia rosmarinus in Semnan East rangeland using ANN model. Iranian Journal of Rangeland and Desert Research 23: 275-287. (In Persian).
McRae, B.H. 2006. Isolation by resistance. Evolution 60: 1551-1561.
McRae, B.H. & Beier, P. 2007. Circuit theory predicts gene flow in plant and animal populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 104: 19885-19890.
McRae, B.H., Dickson, B.G. Keitt, T.H. & Shah, V.B. 2008. Using Circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evoloution and conservation. Ecology 89: 2712-2724.
McRae, B.H. & Shah, V.B. 2009. Circuitscape user's guide. The University of California, Santa Barbara, www.circuitscape.org [accessed on 20 April 2016]
Mozaffarian, V. 2018. Centaurea L. In: Assadi, M., Maassoumi, A.A. & Safavi, S.R. (eds.), Flora of Iran 144: 262-391. Research Institute of Forests and Rangeland, Tehran. (In Persian).
Naimi, B., Hamm, N.A.S., Groen, T.A., Skidmore, A.K. & Toxopeus, A.G. 2014. Where is positional uncertainty a problem for species distribution modelling? Ecography 37: 191-203.
Negaresh, K. 2019. Centaurea khosraviana (Asteraceae, Cardueae), a new species from NW Iran. Annales Botanici Fennici 56: 115-122.
Öksüz, S. & Topcu, G. 1994. Guaianolides from Centaurea glastifolia. Phytochemistry 37: 487-490.
Pearson, R.G., Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Martinez‐Meyer, E., Brotons, L., McClean, C., Miles, L., Segurado, P., Dawson, T.P. & Lees, D.C. 2006. Model‐based uncertainty in species range prediction. Journal of Biogeography 33: 1704-1711.
Piri Sahragard, H., Zare Chahuoki, M.A. & Azarnivand, H. 2016. Developing predictive distribution map of plant species habitats using logistic regression (Case study: Khalajestan rangelands of Qum province). Journal of Rangeland, 9: 222-233. (In Persian).
Piri Sahragard, H., Ajorlo, M. & Karami, P. 2018. Modeling habitat suitability of range plant species using random forest method in arid mountainous rangelands. Journal of Mountain Science 15: 2159-2171.
R Development Core Team. 2018. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing, https://www.R-project.org [accessed on 10 May 2019].
Roever, C.L., van Aarde, R.J. & Leggett, K. 2013. Functional connectivity within conservation networks: Delineating corridors for African elephants. Biological Conservation 157: 128-135.
Shahnaseri G., Hemami, M-R., Khosravi, R., Malakoutikhah, S., Omidi, M. & Cushman, S.A. 2019. Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridors by grey wolf and golden jackal in central Iran. Landscape Ecology 34:1263-1277.
Sirami, C., Caplat, P., Popy, S., Clamens, A., Arlettaz, R., Jiguet, F., Brotons, L. & Martin, J.-L. 2016. Impacts of global change on species distributions: obstacles and solutions to integrate climate and land use. Global Ecology and Biogeography 26: 385-394.
Sousa-Silva, R., Alves, P., Honrado, J. & Lomba, A. 2014. Improving the assessment and reporting on rare and endangered species through species distribution models. Global Ecology and Conservation 2: 226–237.
Tarnian, F., Azarnivand, H., Yazdanparast, R., Zare Chahouki, M.A., Jafari, M., & Kumar, S. 2017. Identifying potential habitats and influencing variables on Daphne mucronata Royle distribution. Journal of Rangeland 11: 179-192. (In Persian).
Thuiller, W., Lafourcade, B. Engler, R. & Araújo, M.B. 2009. BIOMOD-A platform for ensemble forecasting of species distributions. Ecography 32: 369-373.
Thuiller, W., Georges, D., Engler, R. & Breiner, F. 2016. Biomod2: ensemble platform for species distribution modeling. R package version 3.4.6. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package/biomod2 [accessed on 10 March 2020].
Urban, D.L., Minor, E.S., Treml, E.A. & Schick, R.S. 2009. Graph models of habitat mosaics. Ecology Letters 12: 260-273.
van Proosdij, A.S.J., Sosef, M.S.M., Wieringa, J.J. & Raes, N. 2016. Minimum required number of specimen records to develop accurate species distribution models. Ecography 39: 542-552.
Wagenitz, G. 1980. Centaurea L. In: Rechinger, K.H. (ed.), Flora Iranica, 139b: 313-420, Akademische Druck-und, Verlagsanstalt, Graz.
Wagenitz, G. 1983. Centaurea and Index Kewensis. Taxon 32: 107-109.
Wagenitz, G. & Hellwig, F.H. 1996. Evolution of characters and phylogeny of the Centaureinae. In: Hind, D.J.N. & Beentje H.G. (eds.), Compositae: Systematics Proceedings of the International Compositae Conference, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, pp. 491-510.
Wan, H.Y., Cushman, S.A. & Ganey, J.L. 2019. Improving habitat and connectivity model predictions with multi-scale resource selection functions from two geographic areas. Landscape Ecology 34: 503-519.
Wang, C.J & Wan, J.Z. 2020. Assessing the habitat suitability of 10 serious weed species in global croplands. Global Ecology and Conservation 23: e01142.
Yang, X.Q., Kushwaha, S.P.S., Saran, S., Xu, J. & Roy. P.S. 2013. Maxent modeling for predicting the potential distribution of medicinal plant, Justicia adhatoda L. in Lesser Himalayan foothills. Ecological Engineering 51: 83-87.
Zare Chahuoki, M.A., Abbasi, M. & Azarnivand, H. 2014. Evaluating the ability of artificial neural network model in predicting the spatial distribution of plant species (case study: rangeland of Taleghan miany). Journal of Rangeland, 8: 106-114. (In Persian).
Zare Chahouki, M.A., Abbasi M. & Azarnivand, H. 2018. Prediction of potential habitat for stipa barbata species using maximum entropy model (case Study: Taleghan Miany Rangelands). Journal of Rangeland 12: 35-46. (In Persian).
Zare Chahouki, M.A. & Abbasi, A. 2018. Habitat prediction model medicinal species of Rheum ribes L. with Maximum Entropy model in Chahtorsh rangeland of the Yazd province. Journal of Range and Watershed Management 71: 379-391. (In Persian).
Zuur, A.F., Ieno, E.N. & Elphick, C.S. 2010. A protocol for data exploration to avoid common statistical problems. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1: 3-14.
Nova Biologica Reperta
Volume 8, Issue 2 - Serial Number 28
Summer 2021
Pages 142-153

  • Receive Date 08 June 2026
  • Publish Date 08 June 2026

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us