Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Biological characteristics of autumn and spring runs of Caspiomyzon wagneri into the Shirood River, Iran111122386910.22069/ijerr.2017.3869ENFakhrieh Shirood MirzaieFisheries Department, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran.Renaud Claud B.Research and Collections Division, Canadian Museum of Nature, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 6P4.Rasoul GhorbaniFisheries Department, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, IranJournal Article20160207Various biological characteristics were compared between autumn and spring runs of
Caspiomyzon wagneri migrating into the Shirood River, in an attempt to determine whether
these were reproductively isolated. Two spawning runs of the same lamprey species in a
single river are apparently unique to the Shirood. The autumn sample collected between 21
October and 1 November 2009 comprised 15 adults and the spring sample collected
between 22 March and 18 April 2009 comprised 38 adults. While spawning was not
witnessed, the significantly shorter mean total length of at least 40 cm in both males and
females, and the significantly higher gonadosomatic index in females of the autumn run
versus the spring run suggest that the former is closer to spawning than the latter. If one
assumes a single spawning population per year in the river, the report by Nazari and Abdoli
(2010) of recently spent individuals of Caspian lamprey collected in the Shirood River
during April, would therefore imply that the spawning period is remarkably protracted. In
order to test this hypothesis, the spawning sites need to be searched for higher upstream
over the entire year, particularly in areas where suitable spawning substrate of gravel and
sand occursGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Assessment of Geostatistical Methods for Determining Distribution Patterns of Groundwater Resources in Sari-Neka Coastal Plain, Northern Iran124134387010.22069/ijerr.2017.3870ENKhabat KhosraviDepartment of Watershed Management, Sari Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources University, Sari, IMahmoud Habib Nejad RoshanDepartment of Watershed Management, Sari Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources University, Sari, IranAtta SafariDepartment of Watershed Management, Sari Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources University, Sari, IranJournal Article20160207<span>This study aimed to evaluate the temporal change and accuracy of interpolation techniques<br /><span>used for spatial zonation of two groundwater quantity parameters including water table and<br /><span>depth to water table over 11 years. The study was conducted based on the data collected<br /><span>from piezometric wells of Sari-Neka Plain in Mazandaran Province, Iran. The investigated<br /><span>methods included a set of geostatistical approaches involving simple Kriging, ordinary<br /><span>Kriging, Radial Basis Function (RBF), and a deterministic interpolation method called<br /><span>Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) with powers of 1 and 5. Subsequent to quality control<br /><span>and data normalization, the most appropriate variogram was chosen based on low RSS and<br /><span>high r<span>2 <span>while the most suitable interpolation technique was determined regarding the cross<br /><span>validation, Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Mean Bias Error (MBE). The results<br /><span>demonstrated that Simple Kriging was the most suitable method for zoning the depth to<br /><span>groundwater over the years 2001, 2006, and 2012. Meanwhile, the most suitable methods<br /><span>for zoning the water table included IDW with a power of 1for the year 2001, RBF for the<br /><span>year 2006, and IDW with a power of 5 for the year 2012. The important finding was that<br /><span>the interpolation methods showed a lower error for estimating water table than estimating<br /><span>depth to groundwater. This study also revealed a drop in water table in the study area over<br /><span>the 11 years’ period. Meanwhile, new water table classes have been added and extended<br /><span>between the years 2006 and 2012 that had not existed five years earlier. The highest water<br /><span>table losses were observed in three points at 13m depth to water table in the middle and<br /><span>northern parts of the study area.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></span>Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Effects of atmospheric dust deposition on leaf chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of cow-tail shrubs (Smirnovia iranica) in the desert regions of Kashan, Iran135142387110.22069/ijerr.2016.3871ENAbolfazl RanjbarAssociate Professor, Faculty of natural resources. University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.Ehsan Zandi EsfahanAssistant Professor, Rangeland Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands,
Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Tehran, Iran.Journal Article20160807<span><em>Smirnovia iranica</em><span>, a native valuable woody species from <span><em>Fabaceae</em><span>, is an adaptable plant<br /><span>from the central sandy areas of Iran. Changes in chlorophyll fluorescence and<br /><span>photosynthetic pigment characteristics were analysed in the course of dust accumulation<br /><span>during April (Ap); April and May (AM); and April, May and June (AMJ) periods,<br /><span>respectively. The results obtained from the analysis of variance indicated that there was a<br /><span>significant difference among different dust-loading periods of <span><em>S. iranica </em><span>in terms of the<br /><span>characteristics mentioned. Extending dust accumulation resulted in a significant reduction<br /><span>in the F<br /><span>v <span>/F<span>m <span>ratio in AM and AMJ. A significant effect of dust deposition on thermal<br /><span>dissipation of the light energy (<span><em>D</em><span>) value was observed in AM and reached the highest value<br /><span>in AMJ. In all evaluated plants, during the course of dust accumulation, there was a<br /><span>decrease in the photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (ΦPSII), and from AM. A<br /><span>similar influence of the extending dust accumulation periods on ΦPSII was observed for the<br /><span>electron transport rate (<span><em>ETR</em><span>). Our results proved that dust deposition decreased overall<br /><span>plant performance through its severe effect on pigment content and resulted in a significant<br /><span>inhibition of PSII efficiency throughout this study period.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Study of relationship between food security, urban population and development plans in Iran143152387210.22069/ijerr.2017.3872ENJalal SalemPhD of Agricultural Economic, Department of Agricultural Economic, Natural Resources and Agricultural Researches Center of Yazd province- IranMojtaba MojaverianPhD of Agricultural Economic, Department of Agricultural Economic, University of Agricultural and Natural Resources sariJournal Article20160307<span>Urban population growth (non-agricultural population) in developing countries has<br /><span>challenged the food security of urban households. The precise demographic definition of<br /><span>urbanization is the increasing share of a nation's population living in urban areas (and thus a<br /><span>declining share living in rural areas). Mostly, urbanization is the result of net rural to urban<br /><span>migration. We investigated the food security among urban households and the effects and<br /><span>various factors involved for the period of 1983 to 2012. Results showed that during this<br /><span>period the food security of urban households had an increasing trend. Despite the<br /><span>enhancement of food security among urban households, 5.6 percent of the urban<br /><span>populations received less than necessary kilojoules level in 2012, role factors were<br /><span>evaluated as well using time series pattern after estimation of urban household's aggregate<br /><span>food security index (AHFSI). Results showed that effect lag variable of aggregate food<br /><span>security index changes on growth of aggregate food security index in the next year will be<br /><span>significantly negative (at 1% level). These results exhibited that with increase in one-unit<br /><span>growth of food security index in one year, it would decrease by 0.008 units the next year.<br /><span>Every one percent increase of people receiving less than standard energy level will decrease<br /><span>the growth of food security index by 0.009 units. This finding is significant at 10 percent<br /><span>level. Nevertheless, the 1<span>st <span>to 3<span>rd <span>five-year development plans showed more growths on<br /><span>food security indices in comparison with the 4<span>th <span>development plan. Furthermore, the second<br /><span>development plan showed the maximum increase of food security index in comparison with<br /><span>the 4<span>th <span>development plan. Based on the results, the constant and steadily increasing trend of<br /><span>the food security index should be considered as a priority in the future development plans</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Evaluation of the TRMM-3B43 V7 rainfall products on a monthly scale in the Northwest of Iran153168387310.22069/ijerr.2017.3873ENKhadigeh JavanAssistant Professor, Department of Geography, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
Department of Geography, payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, IranMohammad Reza AzizzadehAssistant Professor, Department of Geography, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
Department of Geography, payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, IranJournal Article20160307<span>Satellite rainfall estimate systems can produce data for areas for which other sources are<br /><span>unavailable. Without referring to ground measurements, satellite-based estimates cannot be<br /><span>used directly before bias correction. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the<br /><span>TRMM-3B43 V7 rainfall products in the Northwest of Iran. The evaluation was carried out<br /><span>using monthly data obtained from 21 meteorological stations during 1998–2015. The<br /><span>monthly and annual spatial distributions of the Pearson correlation coefficient between the<br /><span>station and satellite-based observations as well as the statistical error measure were<br /><span>calculated. The results revealed that the correlations between TRMM 3B43 and rain gauge<br /><span>data were high (R> 0.80) in October and small (R < 0.55) in August. Moreover, mean<br /><span>annual spatial distribution of R showed that the small values of R occurred in the Northeast<br /><span>and the southern mountainous regions. We found that the TRMM-3B43 V7 overestimated<br /><span>rainfall in the Northeast, in September, October and November (>30 mm) and in December<br /><span>to May (>20 mm). On the contrary, an underestimation was found in the Southwest regions<br /><span>where summer season (June, July & August) is generally characterized by small anomalies<br /><span>in terms of R values. Generally, the satellite products applied in this study underestimate<br /><span>higher rainfall values while showing overestimation for lower rainfall records. The measure<br /><span>of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) showed that a large spatial variability takes place in<br /><span>September, October and November in most of the stations, particularly when rainfall<br /><span>records is less than 50 mm. Meanwhile, the lowest variability occurred in June, July and<br /><span>August with a slight increase in the Northeast. Our findings imply that satellite products<br /><span>have poor performance for estimating higher rainfalls in the Northwest of Iran on a monthly<br /><span>scale.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span>Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Performance evaluation of artificial neural networks in statistical downscaling of monthly precipitation (Case study: Minab watershed)169182387410.22069/ijerr.2017.3874ENMeysam AlizamirPh.D. student, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, IranMehdi Azhdary MoghadamAssociate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, IranArman Hashemi MonfaredAssistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, IranAli Akbar ShamsipourAssociate Professor, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, IranJournal Article20160307<span>Assessment of the impacts of climate change on water resources has been obtained<br /><span>significant attentions in the past decade. This paper assesses the climate change impacts on<br /><span>precipitation in the Minab basin, in the Hormozgan province in Iran. Two monthly<br /><span>precipitation downscaling methods were proposed based on multi-layer perceptron (MLP)<br /><span>and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks. The downscaling models were calibrated<br /><span>and validated using the large scale climatic parameters (predictors) derived from National<br /><span>Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/ National Centre for Atmospheric Research<br /><span>(NCAR) reanalysis data set for downscaling monthly precipitation in the Minab basin in<br /><span>Iran. Pearson correlation was employed to choose the predictors among the NCEP/ NCAR<br /><span>reanalysis data set and final predictor combination for each station is assigned. The results<br /><span>of the downscaling models revealed that the MLP model produced more accurate and<br /><span>consistent results by downscaling the large scale climatic parameters compared to the RBF<br /><span>model. The proposed model can be reliably utilized for developing future projections of<br /><span>precipitation using the general circulation models outputs which can be employed also as<br /><span>the inputs in hydrological models.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span>Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48325220170701Compactness for Regionalization and its Application in Land-Use Planning184196387510.22069/ijerr.2017.3875ENMaryam Saeed SabaeePh.D candidate in Environmental Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, IranAbdolrassoul SalmanmahinyDept. of Environmental Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, IranSeyed Mohamad ShahraeiniDept. of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Golestan University, Gorgan, IranSeyed Hamed MirkarimiDept. of Environmental Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, IranNorodin DabiriDept. of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Golestan University, Gorgan, IranJournal Article20160807<span>One of the most important and appealing subjects discussed and applied in many<br /><span>geographical studies is compactness. This is a geometrical notion and has applications far<br /><span>beyond the scope of its definition. Besides the importance of measuring compactness in a<br /><span>single object, its study is significant in real-world applications, where the integration of<br /><span>items or objects in conjunction with each other is considered. Regionalization is the term<br /><span>commonly used for this integrative perspective. Although there are several methods to<br /><span>quantify compactness, this study tries to illustrate the simple way for its calculation. Hence,<br /><span>this study is devised to apply with some modifications one of the methods that has been<br /><span>suggested for calculating single object compactness in regionalization domain. We attempt<br /><span>to propose a clear definition and to evaluate the computer implementation of the<br /><span>compactness in a land-use planning study. The ant colony algorithm as a heuristic approach<br /><span>was applied to measure compactness in an innovative manner and to incorporate this<br /><span>concept into a land-use planning case. Results show that this method can be useful in<br /><span>achieving compactness in land-use planning.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span>