Variation in the Quality of Forage of Six Rangeland Species in Different Phenological Stages

An understanding of forage quality is fundamental to the measurement of grazing capacity. In addition, knowledge of forage quality is necessary for planning grazing and developing range improvement and development programmes, such as planting and seeding of rangelands. Among the different factors that affect forage quality, phenological stage is particularly important (Cook, 1972; Caballero et al.,2001). The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of plant species, phenological stages and life form on forage quality indices

Identification, abundance and biomass of benthic communities in south east coasts of the Caspian Sea (Golestan Province)

The frequency and distribution of benthic species in the south east coast of Caspian Sea (proposed site for cage and pen culture) were studied. Sampling was carried out in 2 water depths (1, 5) meters and 12 stations were sampled in each depth using VanVeen sampler. Totally, 11 taxa were identified: Pyrgulidae,Ampharetidae, Neritidae, Nereidae, Cardidae, Gammaridae, Naididae, Balanidae, Foraminifera, Ostracoda and Cumaceae. The most abundant taxa were Gastropoda (66.36%), Foraminifera (15.66%), Polychaeta (14.09%) and Bivalvia (1.65%) respectively. The maximum and minimum biomass was 164.1 g/m in summer and 6.56 g/m in spring. Depth, substratum, season, season-depth interaction, season- substratum –depth interaction had significant effects on biomass and had no significant effect on abundance