Assessment of Biodiversity Components and Plant Species Co-occurrence Patterns in Enclosed and Grazed Rangelands Using the tabula Package in R (Case Study: Zirkouh, South Khorasan)

Rostampour, Moslem

doi:10.22034/nrsj.2026.242235

Assessment of Biodiversity Components and Plant Species Co-occurrence Patterns in Enclosed and Grazed Rangelands Using the tabula Package in R (Case Study: Zirkouh, South Khorasan)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Moslem Rostampour ^¶

Associate Professor, Department of Rangeland and Watershed Management and Research Group of Drought and Climate Change, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran * Corresponding Author: rostampour@birjand.ac.ir

10.22034/nrsj.2026.242235

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the "tabula" package in R for plant sociology studies and to assess the long-term effects of grazing exclusion on biodiversity components in rangelands of Zirkouh, South Khorasan Province. Sampling was conducted in grazed and enclosed (≥30 years) areas by establishing 60 plots of 4 m² using a randomized-systematic method along transects. Alpha diversity indices, beta diversity indices, and similarity coefficients were calculated using the tabula package. The results showed that despite higher basal density in the grazed area (2960 individuals), this area had higher species richness (25 species) compared to the enclosed area (22 species). The Shannon-Wiener (1.26 vs. 0.90), Brillouin (1.25 vs. 0.89), and McIntosh (0.38 vs. 0.21) diversity indices showed significantly higher values in the grazed area (p

Keywords

Arid rangelands

Biodiversity

Enclosure

tabula