Desert Management

Desert Management

Habitat Suitability Modelling of Persian Gazelle Using Maxent Model in Hormod Protected Area, Fars Province, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Borhan Yousefi 1
Ali Jafari 2
Ali Asghar Naghi Poor 3
1 MSc Graduated, Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Nature Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.
10.22034/jdmal.2024.2028666.1465
Abstract
This study employed the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to assess the habitat suitability of the Persian gazelle (Gazella bennettii) within the Hormood Protected Area. Habitat modeling was conducted using 45 occurrence points of the species and a range of environmental variables, including topographic, climatic, vegetation cover, and anthropogenic factors. All environmental datasets and species occurrence points were prepared in a standardized ASCII format and input
into the MaxEnt software. The model was executed with 10,000 background points and a maximum of 15 iterations. Model performance was evaluated using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), while the Jackknife test was applied to identify the relative importance of environmental variables in predicting habitat suitability. Results from the Jackknife test highlighted that the most influential variables were distance from villages (41.1%), vegetation cover (16.6%), slope (13.7%), and mean daily temperature (10.3%). The study estimated that 17.6% of the total area constitutes suitable habitat for the Persian gazelle, while 82.4% was categorized as unsuitable. The model's accuracy, reflected by an AUC value of 0.87, indicates its robust ability to differentiate between suitable and unsuitable habitats. Given the significant role of anthropogenic factors, particularly proximity to villages, in influencing habitat suitability, the study recommends implementing targeted management strategies. These should prioritize environmental education and raising conservation awareness among local communities residing within and around the study area to mitigate human-induced pressures on gazelle habitats.
Keywords
Species distribution modeling
Environmental variables
Human variables
Species response curves

Subjects

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Desert Management
Volume 12, Issue 3 - Serial Number 31
6 Article
Autumn 2024
Pages 55-72

  • Receive Date 10 May 2024
  • Revise Date 22 August 2024
  • Accept Date 22 August 2024