Azita Farashi

Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad | FUM · Department of Environmental Science

Climate change is a crucial element propelling shifts in pest dispersals. Accurate evaluation of pest potential distributions for determining their establishment risks can lead to development of more efficacious pest management strategies. The leopard moth, Zeuzera pyrina (L.) (Lepidoptera: Cossidae), is a devastating pest with increasing significa...

Ferula assa-foiteda L., as one of the most important range plants in northeastern Iran, plays an important role in soil conservation and the economy of rangeland stockholder. However, misuse and destruction of its habitats are among the factors threatening this natural capital. This study was conducted to identify potential habitats of this species...

Climate change is expected to alter biological phenomena across the world, including the numbers and distributions of species and the timing of significant events in their life cycles such as reproduction and migration. Understanding how species will respond to future climate change is essential for effective wildlife management and conservation. A...

Trade of non-native reptiles is an important and increasing driver of biodiversity loss and often compromises the standards required for protection. However, the growing interest in non-native reptiles as pets has posed serious concerns to wildlife managers and conservationists. Instituting effective policies regarding non-native reptiles requires...

Russian-olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) is a species native to southern Europe and central and eastern Asia. This species plays an important role in urban landscape design because of its rapid growth, resistance in harsh climates and tolerance to human-caused pressure. Understanding its potential dispersal and restricting parameters are the first st...

Wildlife trade for non-native pets is an important and increasing driver of biodiversity loss and often compromises the standards required for protection. However, the growing interest in non-native pets has posed the issue of invasive non-native species to wildlife managers and conservationists. Instituting effective policies regarding non-native...

Systems thinking and attention to the relationships between a system’s variables on all spatial and temporal scales is an effective strategy in biological conservation and wildlife management. This study presents a case in a sensitive ecosystem to show how the future state of the jungle cat as an umbrella species depends on local, national, and int...

There is extensive evidence showing the impact of climate change on the biology and biogeography of species. Adopting drought-tolerant plants to conserve water is a potential adaptation to reduce the consequences of climate change. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that climate change would not affect potential distributions of drought-tolerant spec...

Drought and water scarcity are serious limiting factors for plant growth and can thus present an obstacle to development of the urban green areas in the cities in particular under climate change. Using native plants is a high-priority option to increase vegetation cover in areas facing global warming and water scarcity. In order to evaluate whether...

Persian Leopard is the most prominent mammals in Iran, where most of its distribution is known to be in this country. Dispersion of this species depends on anthropological and climatical factors. Studying its habitat as a keystone species is really important because it has effects on the functions of the ecosystem. With this all said, conservation...

Drought and water scarcity are serious limiting factors for plant growth and can thus present an obstacle to development of the urban green areas in the cities in particular under climate change. Using native plants is a high-priority option to increase vegetation cover in areas facing global warming and water scarcity. In order to evaluate whether...

Although reptiles are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates, crucial data on their extinction risks are lacking. The reptile species assessed by IUCN are only a fraction of those at risk of extinction. Thus, conservation planning and management decisions are hindered by the lack of ecological information on the species' distribution pat...

Iran is one of the driest countries in the world and shortage of water is one of the main concerns for wildlife conservation in this country. We have studied eight mammal species at Bafgh protected area at the center of Iran. We have investigated the physic-chemical parameters (salinity, chlorine, bicarbonate, carbonate, calcium, sodium, potassium,...

An analysis of the extent of overlap between habitats of the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus during summer and winter in Iran, and Iranian protected areas, discovered slight overlap between the two. Our study aimed to survey suitable habitats of the Egyptian Vulture during summer and winter in Iran using MaxEnt, a species distribution modell...

Many factors such as human activities threat brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Southern Asia, and limit it to small populations in remote and rocky mountainous regions. Brown bears are generally studied in North America and Europe, but there is little information about its conditions and requirements for survival in Asia. During the recent years, brown...

Having knowledge of the habitat requirements of top predators is important for their conservation and also for the stability of wildlife communities since they are keystone species of ecosystems. This study aims to predict suitable habitats for the Persian leopard (Panther pardus saxicolor, Pocock 1927) in Tandooreh National Park, Iran. This specie...

Due to the relatively low offspring survival rate, surviving adult leopards play a critical role in the species’ viability. The unnatural mortality of leopards, caused by human activities can seriously compromise the species’ long-term population survival. An analysis of spatial distribution and sex ratio of unnatural mortality of 147 recorded Pers...

This file shows the exact UTM localities of the Persian leopard accidental mortalities in Iran. (CSV)

Species distribution models (SDMs) forecast the probability of species presence based on their statistical relationships with habitat parameters. Many studies have compared SDM models and their accuracies, but few have surveyed the effects of the different parameters on SDMs’ performance. We tested the effects of spatial resolution and the model on...

There are high numbers of endangered birds in Iran. Birds also are indicators of biodiversity in different landscapes and using birds as indicator give us a complete overview about the ecological status of the landscape. In the present study migratory waterfowls were used to identify biodiversity hotspots in Iran. Iran is an interesting place for o...

Future changes in climate are imminent and they threat endangered and rare species due to habitat destruction. The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus) is a rare and vulnerable species whose habitat fragmentation and habitat loss decreased the size of its population significantly. Climate change is another threat to this species that i...

The conservation of top predators’ habitats such as the leopard (Panthera pardus) is one of the most effective ways to conserve biodiversity because of wide home range and habitat requirements. Accordingly, in this study, we used species’ habitat suitability modeling to survey the current and future habitat suitability of the Persian leopard in Ira...

Conservation biology has much more attention for biodiversity hot spots than before. In order to recognize the hotspots for Iranian terrestrial mammal species that are listed in any red list, nationally or globally, ten Species Distribution Models (SDMs) have been applied. The SDMs evaluation results based on the TSS and AUC values showed that all...

Iran is one of the most important countries in the Middle East for biodiversity conservation. Because of the high habitat diversity in Iran, a wide range of animal species can live in the country. However, there is lack of knowledge about biodiversity hotspots in Iran. In this paper, the terrestrial mammal, bird, and reptile species listed as threa...

Nutria (Myocastor coypus Molina, 1782) is a semi-aquatic rodent with a native geographical range in South America. It was introduced to Iran at the beginning of the 20th century. The Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) was used to describe the realised niche of this invasive species and to predict the area under risk of invasion in Northern Ira...

The levels of Pb and Cd in the liver and muscle samples of fat dormouse (Glis glis) were measured and compared in various localities in Hyrcanian forests of Northern Iran. We detected the highest Pb and Cd residues in sampled animals inhabiting forest patches closer to high-traffic roads and a decreasing trend was recorded ranging from polluted are...

Urial Wild Sheep and Wild Goat are from the Artiodactyla order and are considered to be the prey of Persian Leopard. The location of Iran and, consequently, its various provinces, including Khorasan Razavi province, have led to the appearance of a significant variety of our country in our unique geographical position. The aim of this study was to d...

The Placement of Iran in its unique geographical position has created a considerable biodiversity in our country. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the presence of Armenian Wild Sheep using Maxent method. Armenian Wild Sheep is from the Artiodactyla order and it is classified as a vulnerable species in IUCN red list, also Armenian...

The raccoon Procyon lotor (Linnaeus 1758) is a native species of North and Central America, but it can be also found as an alien species in parts of Europe and Asia. The raccoon’s flexibility and capability in coping with environmental changes have made it the most successful invader compared with other species. In 1991, a raccoon was recorded in I...

Invasive alien species are considered to be one of the most important causes for the extinction and the reason for diminishing of the wild native species. Considering that nowadays the raccoon (Procyon lotor, Linnaeus 1758) is found in several European and Asian countries where it can amplification its ranges remarkably, but it is actually native t...

In recent years, brown bear Ursus arctos populations in Iran have experienced a clear trend of reduction and the species is now officially listed as threatened under provincial legislation. Anthropogenic habitat alteration and increasing human access to previously remote landscapes are potential source of stress for this species in Iran. Therefore,...

Zoning of a protected area is an approach to partition landscape into various land use units. The management of these landscape units can reduce conflicts caused by human activities. Tandoreh National Park is one of the most biologically diverse, protected areas in Iran. Although the area is generally designed to protect biodiversity, there are man...

Nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a native aquatic rodent to South America, and was introduced to Europe, Asia, Africa and North America for fur farming. The South American nutria or coypu is now considered a pest in the area of introduction, because of its negative impact on biological diversity and ecological relationships. Having information on the i...

The Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops Bruun & Kaiser, 1944) is 'Vulnerable' in the IUCN Red List. It is an endemic species of ray-finned fish of the family Cyprinidae from a single locality in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran. This species is an omnivore that depends on plankton for food. We studied the spatial and seasonal distribution of...

Plankton composition and environmental parameters in the habitat of the Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops) in Iran.— The Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops Bruun & Kaiser, 1944) is 'Vulnerable' in the IUCN Red List. It is an endemic species of ray–finned fish of the family Cyprinidae from a single locality in the Zagros Mountains, wester...

The Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops Bruun & Kaiser, 1944) is a rare and endemic species of the family Cyprinidae known from a single locality in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran. This species is "Vulnerable" according to the IUCN Red List and is one of the top four threatened freshwater fish species in Iran. Yet, the taxonomic position of...

The Iranian cave barb (Iranocypris typhlops) is a species of ray-finned fish of the family Cyprinidae from a single locality in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran. Iranocypris thyphlops is currently recognized as a vulnerable species according to the IUCN Red Data Book. The species faces many natural and human threats in the native habitat. These t...

National parks are considered fundamental to efforts to protect biodiversity around the world. The recognition of protected zones is one of difficulties that protected areas managers are facing with it for management of these regions. There for in this study, that was conducted in Kolah Ghazi National Park, Multi criteria evaluation approach was us...

Wolf (Canis lupus) of main predator for artiodactyla and its impact on the use of artiodactyla habitats will be determined while this species actual and potential habitats are determined. In order to achieve this goal, habitat modeling tools can be appropriate. In this study, Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) method was used to determine habi...

Nowadays, invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity and create many economic losses. Modeling for predict the distribution trends of invasive species is considered as a biodiversity management tool. Raccoon is a native species in North and Central America, and nowadays it is an invasive species in many countries such as Japan, Germany and...

Collection and interpretation of ecological data is dependant on scale highly. So far, many ecological studies have been implemented about multiple scales with a focus on wildlife habitat modeling. When we express scale in ecology or landscape ecology and limit it in several levels of spatial scale, we should know that recognizing territories of sc...

Habitat requirements of the Black Woodpecker, Dryocopus martius, in Hyrcanian forests, Iran (Aves: Picidae) Abstract The relationships between the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius (Linnaeus, 1758)) abundance and forest characteristics and the role of coarse woody debris for habitat selection were assessed. One hundred point counts were conducte...

Raccoon is a native species to North and Central America. At present, it is an invasive species in many countries such as Japan, Germany, Russia and Iran. Raccoon was observed for the first time in Gilan province in Iran in 1991. This research was employed Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) method to model habitat selection of Raccoon in Lavan...

The relationships between the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius (Linnaeus, 1758)) abundance and forest characteristics and the role of coarse woody debris for habitat selection were assessed. One hundred point counts were conducted 250 m apart in Hyrcanian forest in northern Iran from 21 April to 21 May 2009. There was a noticeable difference in...

Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity and have many adverse effects which cause economic losses. In this study, it was tried to survey raccoon damages in Iran at Lavandevil wildlife refuge. The purpose of this research was to address three main topics: (1) to study the effective environmental factors on raccoon distribution in Lavande...

Earth damages from human disturbance and sometimes it shows reactions. Thus, in recent decades, many politicians, professionals and experts have tried to protect the human habitat and environment and have prepared regulations and legal requirements such as ISO 14001 standard. The set of ISO 14000 environmental standards that the general idea of thi...

Kolah Ghazi National Park is one of the most important habitats for wild goat in Iran with a population of around 2000 heads. In order to model the habitat for this species, a presence only layer was used as input to ENFA method in Biomapper software. Ecogeographic factors were also used as independent variables including plant community, distribut...