About
74
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Introduction
I am mainly interested in functional ecology, biotic interactions and competition in drylands specially hyperarids. I am also interested in plant establishment using seed ecological basis.
We are studying different ecological and management scenarios specially fire and climate change in our group using different ecophysiological traits of plants and biocrust. Golestan National Park is our main study area with different grasslands, shrublands, saltlands and steppes.
Additional affiliations
September 2014 - November 2018
September 2013 - present
July 2008 - May 2013
Education
January 2008 - May 2013
September 2003 - April 2006
September 2000 - September 2003
Publications
Publications (74)
QuestionAluminium (Al) toxicity is one of the most important factors restricting plant establishment on acidic soils, but its ecological significance for the occurrence of species along natural pH gradients is still under investigation. Are species occurring on acidic sandy soils less susceptible to Al toxic effects on germination and seedling root...
This chapter covers seed ecology and assembly rules in plant communities, starting with the ecological aspects of diaspore regeneration, a brief historical review, dispersal, and soil seed bank persistence, germination, and establishment. Then ecological databases on seed ecological traits are discussed. Also included are sections on seed ecologica...
در این مقاله مبانی اکولوژی کارکردی شامل صفات کارکردی, گروه های کارکردی, رویکرد کارکرد محور, گزینش رویشگاه و تفکیک آشیان ها, مولفه های کارکردی شامل تنوع کارکردی,غنا کارکردی, شاخص رائو و نیز کاربرد آن در سوالات اکولوژیک مانند چرای دام, تغییر اقلیم, و تغییر کاربری اراضی بحث شده است.
Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research sp...
Aims
Seeds are usually classified as short- or long-term persistent. It is still hardly understood how environmental conditions influence seed persistence. The study aimed to monitor the long-term effects of different moisture and substrate on seed persistence.
Methods
Seeds of three Rumex species buried in autumn 2009 in combinations of moisture...
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...
Salt marshes are unique habitats between sea or saline lakes and land that need to be conserved from the effects of global change. Understanding the variation in functional structure of plant community along environmental gradients is critical to predict the response of plant communities to ongoing environmental changes. We evaluated the changes in...
Soil biological properties are good indicators for the evaluation of soil quality, introduced as key indicators in soil health, which is in line with the nutrient cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. To the best of the authors' knowledge, responses of belowground biota to habitat degradation have received little attention. The present study aimed to s...
In this study, we aim to evaluate the diversity of vascular plants and lichens coexisting in Artemisia sieberi dominated landscapes of northern Iran. Specifically, we wanted to unveil to what extent Artemisia plant cover and soil features affected species diversity and composition of annuals and lichens growing beneath them, and if annual plants an...
Although the diversity–disturbance relationship has been extensively studied, the differences in responses of taxonomic vs. functional diversity to natural disturbances (i.e., fire) call for an improved understanding of this relationship. Here, we investigated how fire disturbance influenced plant taxonomic and functional diversity in
Golestan Nati...
Biological soil crusts (BSC) play a crucial role in arid ecosystem functioning, yet the effect of their properties (e.g. whether they are dominated by mosses and lichens) on the germination has rarely been investigated. Here, we analysed the effects of intact, dead and removed moss or lichen BSC on seed germination of Stipa caucasica, a key species...
Abstract
Questions
Are there contrasting short- and long-term effects of shrubs on understorey species that may balance at the community level? (ii) Are these effects due to the responses of different understorey species groups? (iii) Are these effects contributing to community composition?
Location
An Artemisia steppe community in Golestan Nation...
Smoke and heat as germination cues are some of the most important drivers stimulating seed germination. However, the impact of germination factors from wildfire (i.e., smoke and heat) on the germination of species occurring in western Asia has rarely been investigated. We aimed to analyze the effects of different smoke and heat treatments on seed g...
Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...
Question
Alpine studies highlighted dominant facilitative effects of cushion species for diversity. Much less studies have assessed the effects of cushion shrubs from drier and less cold mountain habitats and how these effects vary within the shrub canopy and with increasing drought stress with exposure and disturbance by fire.
Location
A mountain...
Land degradation is one of the major environmental problems in many countries in the 21st century, and human activities are the most important factor influencing it. The types and processes of Land degradation in the various ecosystems are not similar. Lands in the fragile, arid ecosystems cover about 41 percent of Earth’s surface where 37 percent...
Biochar is a carbon rich product which created under low Oxygen conditions. In this study the effect of Biochar in three levels 0, 0.5 and 1 weight percentage on morphological traits like height, SLA, aboveground and underground biomass, length and volume of root and physiological characteristics such as chlorophylls, gas exchange and electrolyte l...
The biotic interactions have the strong impact on the ecosystem function. This study
aims on the investigation of biotic interactions influenced by shrub death in two
exposures. Therefore, 20 alive and 20 dead Onobrychis cornutacushions were selected
in each exposure and for each of the plots one plot with the same size in open space
were selec...
A water-soluble polysaccharide was isolated from Tornabea scutellifera and fractionated using a DAEA Sepharose FF column to evaluate its capacity to stimulate natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages. Neutral sugars (71.8–93.5%) constituted the major part of crude polysaccharides and fractions (TSF 1 and TSF 2 ) with relatively lower levels of pro...
Halophytes are crucial in the light of increasing soil salinization, yet our understanding of their chemical composition and its relationship to key morphological traits such as succulence or salt excretion is limited. This study targets this issue by exploring the relationship between the elemental composition of 108 plant species from saline envi...
Gypsum ecosystem is rarely investigated in Iran and only few studies reported flora or soil condition of agriculture lands. Considering gypsum habitats located in the arid lands therefore our knowledge in the arid lands could help for better understanding gypsum ecosystems. Arid lands include different habitats such as steppes, shrublands, hayperar...
Abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
Soil erosion is one of the most destructive processes of arid and semi-arid areas, which
leads to desertification in a large area of the region. In windy areas, the wind in the region
increases the probability of wind erosion. Soil moisture and soil temperature are the two
effective factors in soil erosion control. Vegetati...
Abstract
Dust has considerable effects on plants recently. In this study the effect of simulated dust on some morphological traits like plant height, SLA, aboveground and belowground biomass, root volume and length and physiological traits such as chlorophyll, gas exchange, electrolyte leakage in Bromus tomentellus and¬ Medicago sativa species wer...
Assessing impacts of different factors on soil erosion is crucial for developing management of watershed resources. The present study aimed at determining the effect of rainfall intensity (RI) and slope steepness (SS) on sediments subjected to raindrop detachment (RD), transport by raindrop splash (ST), raindrop-induced flow transport (RIFT) and tr...
This experiment was conducted to survey the effect of desiccation and storage temperature on Balkan maple (Acer hyrcanum Fisch & Meyer) seed viability. The seeds were hermetically stored at three moisture content levels (12%, 8% and 4%) and stored in three storage temperatures including -20 °C (freezer), 4 °C (refrigerator) and 25 °C (room) up to 4...
Abstract
Biological soil crusts greatly affect the surface properties of the soil, which in turn may also
alter the germination of the seeds of vascular plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the
effect of moss on germination of five dominant species of Golestan National Park. At the
beginning of the experiment, the seeds of five dominant...
Patchy vegetation is the main characteristic of arid and semi-arid lands. Gaps between patches in some cases are covered with biological soil crust such as lichens and these crusts have important ecological roles such as influence on germination and plant survival. In this research, effects of lichens as an important biological crust on the germina...
Acer hyrcanum is a rare maple distributed mainly in the Hyrcanian Mountain forests of Iran and in other parts of western Asia. Its high potential for use in forest rehabilitation programmes is limited due to lack of knowledge about its seed germination requirements. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the seed dormancy and germination req...
Reduced precipitation treatments often are used in field experiments to explore the effects of drought on plant productivity and species composition. However, in seasonally snow-covered regions reduced precipitation also reduces snow cover, which can increase soil frost depth, decrease minimum soil temperatures and increase soil freeze–thaw cycles....
The Hyrcanian forest is composed of many Arcto-Tertiary plant species that since the beginning of the Quaternary glaciations have decreased their distribution until they became endemic to the coasts of the Caspian Sea in the northern part of Iran. Today, the Hyrcanian forest is considered as the closest similar remnant of the Plio-Pleistocene Europ...
Biochar or charcoal is a C-rich products which is a from of burning of various biomass or waste of agricultural products, rangeland, forest, animals, sewage sludge. Biochar is produced by process of pyrolysis, the limited oxygen or oxygenfree condition. Today, this research topics is importance and several researches has been done on its benefits....
In recent years, the frequency of the occurance of the dust phenomenon has increased on both regional and global scales. This phenomenon affects several physiological, morphological and biochemical traits of plant species which can influence plant function and their growth and yield. This review focuses on the effects of dust on germination and som...
Background and aims – Although an understanding of the effects of fire severity on diversity components of the soil seed bank (SSB) and aboveground vegetation (AGV) is important to inform conservation and restoration practices of biodiversity, the effects of fire severity on α- and β-diversity of SSB and AGV are poorly understood. While β-diversity...
Fire is one of the determinant disturbances affecting vegetation structures and functions. Post fire vegetation recovery is influenced by fire derived smoke influencing seed germination. This influence could play an important role in vegetation restoration. This study aim on understanding plant functional types responses to different smoke treatmen...
Smoke is thought to be one of the most important fire cues stimulating seed germination of species from both fire-prone and fire-free ecosystems. The impact of smoke on seed germination at the community level of certain habitats in Western Asia has not been investigated yet. We aimed to analyze the effects of different smoke treatments on soil seed...
Fire is among important parameters affecting plant communities and can change vegetation during long periods. Effects of fire related cues could be simulated with smoke and heat. Seed of three species including Stipa caucasica ، Festuca valesiaca and Poa densa were collected in the Golestan national park and were tested with different smoke (1:2000...
Introduction: Amongst different habitats, fire is an ecological factor and determinant that affects many
physico-chemical soil factors. In addition, among natural disturbances, fire plays an important role in plant
diversity conservation and in some areas around the world, the presence of some plant species depends on
natural fire. The extension of...
Assessment of rangeland ecological characteristics have been proposed as an important factor in reviewing and monitoring the effects of various management measures and it demands different tools for quantifying and offering a reasonable criterion for comparison of different managements. For this purpose, the Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) method...
Assessment of rangeland ecological characteristics have been proposed as an important factor in reviewing and monitoring the effects of various management measures and it demands different tools for quantifying and offering a reasonable criterion for comparison of different managements. For this purpose, the Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) method...
Researchers have been used plant functional traits for ecosystem interpretation and ecological assessments. Plant functional traits are all measurable plant traits affecting plant efficiency. For interpretation of functional traits variations in habitat levels different indices are used which Rao and CWM are showing more reliable results along envi...
Background and Aims
Seed bank persistence plays a highly relevant role for population dynamics. The impact of interacting environmental factors on seed longevity has only scarcely been investigated. We aimed to analyse the effects of varied soil substrate type and moisture on soil seed survival.
Methods
Seeds of three Rumex species native to differ...
Dry sandy grasslands occur throughout Central Europe and Southern Germany, and they
host many rare and endangered plant species. To date, insufficient data on seed ecological
aspect of this endangered vegetation type exist. Seed ecological studies attempt to develop
ecological knowledge by identifying patterns and underlying mechanisms. Therefore,...
Rangeland ecosystem contains various patches with different functions. Structural and functional characteristics of rangeland patches are change by management practices and can be used for interpreting of management effects. Grazing intensity and land cultivation are the most important factors in range degradation and decrease range function. Zaran...
Background: Thymus kotschyanus (Lamiaceae) is a valuable plant species which mainly grow in mountainous regions. Different species of this plant have worldwide distribution especially in Mediterranean region. The plant is a woody, small, patchy, or perennial herb with a woody base. It is well known as a medicinal plant with energetic and antibacter...
Questions
Questions (11)
Dear All
I would like to know how much light is needed for desert , grasslands, woodland and subalpine species in climate room. I am planning for 3*3 meter climatic room for ecophysiological purposes. Normally we use florescence light and we can use LED as well. We have air and moisture conditioning in the room.
Because for obtaining high Lux values we will face problem of high temperature and in other side, for low Lux values we will have problem in light.
Do you have any suggestion for amount of Lux or PPF?
All the best,
Mehdi
I am interested to measure PAR under canopy of shrubs. There are some high quality devices (Waltz, adc..) but i would like to have handy field instrument (not very expensive!).
Do you have any advice or experience?
Warm regards,
Mehdi
Dear Colleagues,
Different size for open top chambers(OTC) have been used by researchers. It would be nice to have your advice in proper size for OTC in subalpine grasslands, tall grasslands and desert.
In general, Do you know any review about possible sizes of OTC for different habitats?
Because size of OTC (height, slope and size) influence on warming (Marion et al,1997).
Warm regards,
Mehdi
Dear all,
There are different versions of R. Packages depend to their released time need newer or older version of R.
There are some explanation in the r website as "md5sum of the .exe to the true fingerprint". However, i couldnt get what exactly should be done!.
It would be nice to have your advice about switching from different versions of R and running different packages.
Warm regards,
Mehdi
Dear All,
Total root length and mean root diameter are important functional traits. Some software like WinRHIZO can calculate this parameters however i don't have accessibility to this software. Do you know how can we calculate this parameters using free software?
Warm regards,
Mehdi
As i know several young researchers face problem in writing discussion specially in ecological journal which need interpretation and comprehensive discussion!.
In general some rules already mentioned like starting from our results and increase generality, relation to main structure designed in introduction, writing the gaps and future questions. However, this is not enough and high ranked journals looks for professional discussion format.
it would be nice to know your idea about following points:
How we should start discussion? summarize the main output, divide discussion to several part exactly from start and discuss separately.
How to avoid repeating structure of introduction and results part in discussion? mainly in most article introduction will divide in several separated question which we want to answer in results and discuss. the only art now is avoiding repeating..
What is the best structure for discussion? the most important part is the structure to decide about position of paragraphs in the discussion.
Simple book section or lecture- there are several books about academic writing but it would be nice to introduce book section or lectures which could be useful for ecological discussion.
Warm regards,
Mehdi
Projects
Projects (7)
To develop a global checklist of the World’s gypsophytes, which can broaden our ecological and biogeographical understanding of these unique environments. In addition, a global gypsum outcrops cartography will be developed. This cartography generated in this way will be useful for the management and conservation of the gypsum flora, for the study of the spatial patterns of the gypsophytes and the study of gypsophily in general, as well as for identifying areas not sufficiently prospected from both the botanical and biological point of view