sohrab Ashrafi | University of Tehran (original) (raw)

Papers by sohrab Ashrafi

The challenge posed by newly discovered cryptic species: disentangling the environmental niches o... more The challenge posed by newly discovered cryptic species: disentangling the environmental niches of long-eared bats

International Journal of Environmental Studies, 2021

Background: Anthropogenic activities release high concentrations of heavy metals into the aquatic... more Background: Anthropogenic activities release high concentrations of heavy metals into the aquatic ecosystems, which can be absorbed by the aquatic organisms. In this study, the accumulation of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) was compared in liver, gill and muscle tissues of toothed carp (Aphanius sophiae) in fresh and salt water. Methods: A total of 175 fish samples were collected from the Shoor River, Iran during the spring and summer of 2011. Samples were divided into two groups for salt and freshwater experiments. The individuals of each group were also divided into seven groups, a control group and the other six exposed to the concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 mg/L of arsenic and 5, 10 and 20 mg/L of cadmium. The liver, gills and muscle tissues of the specimens were dissected. The tissues were wet digested in acid and the concentrations of metals were measured using an ICP-OES instrument. Results: The concentrations of both metals were significantly different in various organs in bot...

Bat fauna of Iran has been well-studied and documented. Up to now, 50 species of bats belonging t... more Bat fauna of Iran has been well-studied and documented. Up to now, 50 species of bats belonging to 16 genus have been reported from Iran. Here we report collection of two desert long-eared bat, Otonycteris leucophaea specimens from the Parvand Protected Area in the north-east of Iran as a new locality for this rare bat species, showing its range extension toward the central part of Iran.

Journal of Zoological Research

Identifying suitable habitats of species is essential knowledge to conserve them successfully. Hu... more Identifying suitable habitats of species is essential knowledge to conserve them successfully. Human activities causes the reduction of population size and habitat suitability of many species. Red-backed Shrike is a widespread in western Palearctic. However, the population of this specie has declined in its geographical range due to the loss of suitable habitats. Therefore, it is necessary to identify its suitable habitats and factors affecting species habitat suitability and to protect its reduction population size. The aim of the present study was to identify the suitable habitat of the Red-backed Shrike and determine the most important predictors of its suitable habitat in Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot. To achieve this goal, species presence points were first collected and seven environmental variables related to climate, topography and anthropogenic activities, were used to construct the species habitat suitable model. Models were built using five distribution modeling me...

Scientific Reports

Spatial gradients of species richness can be shaped by the interplay between historical and ecolo... more Spatial gradients of species richness can be shaped by the interplay between historical and ecological factors. They might interact in particularly complex ways in heterogeneous mountainous landscapes with strong climatic and geological contrasts. We mapped the distribution of 171 lizard species to investigate species richness patterns for all species (171), diurnal species (101), and nocturnal species (70) separately. We related species richness with the historical (past climate change, mountain uplifting) and ecological variables (climate, topography and vegetation). We found that assemblages in the Western Zagros Mountains, north eastern and north western parts of Central Iranian Plateau have the highest number of lizard species. Among the investigated variables, annual mean temperature explained the largest variance for all species (10%) and nocturnal species (31%). For diurnal species, temperature change velocity shows strongest explained variance in observed richness pattern (...

Acta Ecologica Sinica

Abstract Ecological studies have been focused on large, rare or endangered species but species wh... more Abstract Ecological studies have been focused on large, rare or endangered species but species which are adapted to traditional agroecosystems or rural environments received less attention. For example, Little owl is a typical inhabitant of agricultural lands and its population had greatly reduced due to the mechanized agriculture. In this paper, we built the first country level habitat suitability map for the little owl and identified the most influential environmental predictor of its distribution in Iran. We used species presence data (177 distribution points) and eight uncorrelated environmental variables to model the species suitable habitats using the maximum entropy approach (Maxent). Results showed that suitable habitats for this species are located in the northwest, parts of north east and southwest of Iran. Distance to forests, distance to human settlements and distance to agricultural lands are the most important determinants of the little owl distribution in Iran. Human migrations from rural areas to the cities and availability of many vacant human settlements surrounded by traditional and semi-modern agricultural landscapes produce suitable habitats for little owl in Iran.

Polish Journal of Ecology

ABSTRACT This study evaluates and compares habitat preferences and spatial niche breadth and over... more ABSTRACT This study evaluates and compares habitat preferences and spatial niche breadth and overlap between two sympatrically occurring species, the sand cat (Felis margarita) and Rüppell's fox (Vulpes rueppellii), in a desert landscape of central Iran. A field survey from 2014 to 2016 was conducted to collect occurrence points for the two species as well as to identify their structural characteristics of used habitats in the occurrences points. Jacobs' index as a measure of habitat preference, Shannon and Levins' indices as measures of niche breadth, MacArthur, Levins and Pianka's indices as measures of niche overlap were calculated and interpreted. The results of this study showed that the sand cats are specifically restricted to sand dune and sabulous habitat type, whereas Rüppell's foxes have wider ecological amplitude. Sand cats only prefers sand dunes while Rüppell's foxes were found to prefer foothills, badlands, and sand dunes. Rüppell's foxes therefore had a wider niche breadth compared to the sand cats. The asymmetric MacArthur and Levins indices yielded a higher value of niche overlap for the sand cats compared to Rüppell's foxes, while the symmetric Pianka's measure of niche overlap was relatively high for both species. Such habitat preference and niche segregation between the two species may be a result of their feeding habits or the physical protective structure of their habitats attributes.

Contemporary Problems of Ecology

Climate change has been identified as one of the most important and immediate threats to biodiver... more Climate change has been identified as one of the most important and immediate threats to biodiversity. In this study, we reviewed published papers about the impacts of climate change on Iran’s biodiversity since 2014. We found that among the 37 studied species, 30 species will lose at least some parts of their distribution ranges. However, the distribution of seven species will increase. Climate change will have negative impacts on 81 percent of the studied species thus, it is a major problem for biodiversity conservation in Iran. We suggest that determining the effectiveness of Iran’s protected areas for conservation of biodiversity, and ensuring their connectivity under current and future climatic conditions should be prioritized for future research in Iran.

TURKISH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

EURASIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE (EJSS)

Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 2016

Along the coastal strip of tropical and subtropical regions, mangrove forests extend as one of th... more Along the coastal strip of tropical and subtropical regions, mangrove forests extend as one of the most productive coastal ecosystems. Iran is considered one of the most western coastal habitats of these communities in Asia. Unfortunately, in recent years, despite their economic and ecological importance, these forests have been threatened mainly due to human activities, which necessitate the need for protecting and developing these ecosystems. Ex-situ conservation, which aims to transfer a species to right place for preservation and development, is one of the most effective ways of protecting these forests. It is obvious that the successful transfer of a species in order to protect it as ex-situ conservation requires a comprehensive environmental assessment. The present paper employs a spatio-statistical methodology to delineate areas enriched with environmental parameters and weather factors necessary to support a mangrove ex-situ conservation plan in Hormozgan Province, Iran. With extensive effort in reviewing the related studies in the literature, we elicted a collection of 14 environmental and weather indicators critical to maintaining mangrove stands in a sustainable ecological environment. For screening the number of indicators to environmental variables with highest importance in our research, we used the Delphi method to quantify expert attitudes in order to develop a suitability index collection. Accordingly, an integrated application of GIS spatial analysis and a logistic regression algorithm were used to build an explicit spatial predictive model that evaluates the targeted area in terms of identified factors, thereby quantifying the potential of suitable zones for locating mangrove ex-situ conservation sites. Predictive performance of the developed model was evaluated based on Kappa index and omission error rate. According to our results, land proneness to a mangrove plantation has a high positive correlation with environmental attributes such as temperature fluctuation, land form, and mean tidal level, and has a negative correlation with slope and wave height. Our results should be considered advantageous for decision makers and planners in the field of mangrove ecosystems.

Efficiency of the existing protected areas network in conservation of biodiversity is one of the ... more Efficiency of the existing protected areas network in conservation of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges of protected areas custodians. Despite there are numerous articles on evaluating the efficiency of the protected areas for conserving the habitat and species on national and international scales, however, in Iran this subject has not been studied yet. The aim of the present study is to investigate the efficiency of Iran's protected areas in country's biome protection. The results showed large differences in country's biomes coverage by protected areas categories. Given that each category of protected area has different goals and existence of all categories is essential to achieve the goal of biodiversity conservation, it is recommended that in the future development of protected areas in country, the appropriate coverage of each biome should be considered. This means that the map of country's biomes is suggested being the basis for selection of n...

A complete list of bat records available from Jordan was compiled from literature and from new re... more A complete list of bat records available from Jordan was compiled from literature and from new records, based on field studies and examination of museum specimens. The record review is complemented by distribution maps, summaries of distributional status of the particular species, files of field observations, and data on feeding ecology. Basic descriptive echolocation parameters for 17 species (782 calls from 134 call sequences analysed) are given and discussed. Arthropod ectoparasites were collected from 14 bat species. In some species sheets, notes concerning variation of the Levantine populations are added. From the territory of the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 289 records of 26 bat species belonging to nine families are known; viz.

Taxonomy and Biosystematics, Dec 15, 2014

Journal of Wetland Ecobiology, Jun 15, 2013