In order to restore rangeland ecosystems, it is necessary to analyse  the habitats ecological factors and determine the most important environmental factors affecting their species distribution. Desirability of Jashir (Prangos ferulacea (L.) Lindl.) habitat in the mountainous rangelands of Urmia province, Iran, was evaluated using the ecological “Niche Factor Analysis” (ENFA). ENFA is a multivariate analysis method for studying the geographic distribution of species. Presence data is the dependent and environmental factors are independent variables. For this purpose, spatial data of presence of Jashir species were recorded  using GPS based on plant types and fieldwork. The environmental factors (climate, topography and soil) related to the habitat were measured. By introducing climatological, topographic and Soil characteristics information and map of the presence of species into the Biomper software, a potential habitat map was developed for Jashir species. The results showed that from the 2220 hectares of the studied habitats, 370 hectares (16.6%) are potentially habitats of Jashir species. In this regard, the accuracy of the model based on the Boys Profile and the use of the middle algorithm was evaluated as 94%. Also, verification of the map against real world made with the Kappa coefficient, of 0.88.

Keywords: Ecological niche, Jashir, mountain rangelands.

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