Ecological Assessment of the Terrestrial Biomes for Wildlife in Iran

Abstract Man-made activities owing to damage and fragmentation of habitat are the biggest threats to the biodiversity of Iran's Terrestrial Biomes in recent years. To fully understand the treats, we must first identify and map those biomes. Data sources used to do that included: For this study, IDRISI TerrSet 18.31 Software, Iranian Roads, Iran Protected Areas, Iran Terrestrial Biomes, Iran-wide Land cover maps of 2017, and the Terrestrial Biomes Ecosystem Service Modeler on the InVEST toolkit (TBESMI) were used to map biomes. The results show that the largest terrestrial biome in Iran is Deserts and Xeric Shrublands (DXS) (57.77%) and the smallest is Flooded Grasslands and Savannas (FGS) (0.44%). Roads, and urban and agricultural development are among the largest threats and most destructive stressors in terrestrial biomes. This study shows that there is a growth in destruction of habitat in the Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forest (TBMF) (11.08%), Temperate Coniferous Forest (TCF) (8.84%), and Flooded Grasslands and Savannas (FGS) (7.77%); and a decrease in the DXS (5.14%). There is also an increase in habitat landscape quality in the DXS (62.91%), FGS (57.44%), and Montane Grasslands and Shrublands (MGS) (47.44%); and a decrease in the TGSS (23.19%) and TBMF (26.59%). Finally, there are an increase in the cumulative risk of habitat degradation in the TCF (86.61), Temperate-Grasslands-Savannas-Shrublands (TGSS) (85.83%), and TBMF (83.1%); and a decrease in cumulative risk in the DXS (41.12%). The Iran Terrestrial Biomes include areas protected for quality (11.68%), degradation (8.04%), and risk (8.5%). The FGS Terrestrial Biome with the highest cumulative risk and the MGS Terrestrial Biome with the highest cumulative risk exposure are at the highest risk from man-made activities. Stressors from Agriculture and Urbanization have the highest exposure scores in the MGS, and Roads have the highest exposure scores in the TBMF and DXS Terrestrial Biomes.