Assessment of temporal and spatial crop species diversity and factors leading it to change by use of Structural Equation modeling in agroecosystems of Iran.

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Arash Ghalehgolabbehbahani ¹
• Mehdi Nassiri Mahallati ²
• Alireza Koocheki ²

¹ Ferdowsi university of Mashhad

² Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/jag.v1i1.44542

Abstract

During the last decades, the population growth and increase in food demands simultaneously, has brought more attention toward the more production as the main function of agroecosystems, without adequate attention to other services and ecological dimensions which can conserve the sustainability and resilience of agroecosystems. Due to catastrophic effect of human activity and the changing environment that caused by climate change, the biodiversity monitoring and crop species conservation are highly important in the future of agroecosystems as the integral part of the long term sustainability. This study carried out to assess the effect of most important factors that potentially led to the temporal and spatial agrobiodiversity changes in Iran by use of Structural Equation Modeling in alfa Scale (37 cities in 11 Provinces). The result of this study showed that climatological factors and socio-economic factors are two important latent factors that affect spatial agrobiodiversity changes. Indeed, radiation (MJ/M2) was the most important observed factor in the climatological parameters that affects the species crop diversity in agroecosystems of Iran. Moreover, the results of this study shed light on the negative trend of temporal agrobiodiversity changes during 2002 to 2011, and this kind of diversity degradation was more severe in east regions of Iran.

Keywords

• Agrobiodiversity indices
• Agroecosystems
• Species diversity
• Socio- economic factors
• Climate change

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