Relationship among Plant Measurements of Salsola turcomanica (Litv) and Soil Properties in Semi-arid Region of Golestan Province,Iran

T. in rangeland management, the ecological needs and response of plants to theenvironment is studied by investigating the relationship among measurements of plants andenvironmental factors. this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between plantdensity, vegetation cover and biomass of salsola turcomanica with the soil physico-chemicalproperties in the fall of 2018. for this purpose, in three areas (area with high, medium and lowcoverage of s.turcomanica), three transects of 100 m length were located at a distance of 100 mfrom each other. in each transect, 10 plots (2m2) were systematically established. then vegetationcover and the density of individual plants were recorded. biomass was estimated via cutting andweighing method. soil samples were systematically taken from center of each plot at the depth of0-20cm. some soil physical and chemical properties such as soil texture, bulk density, ph, ec,organic carbon, absorbable p, exchangeable k and na were measured. data were analyzed byone-way analysis of variance and mean comparisons were made using the tukey test. therelationships among plant measurements and soil properties were investigated using multipleregression analysis. the results demonstrated that soil acidity had the most influence on thevegetation cover of s.turcomanica (p<0.05), likewise soil acidity and soil exchangeable sodiumcontent had the most influence on its biomass (p<0.05). among the exchangeable cations, ca hadthe highest value (1730 ppm) and na had the lowest one (105 ppm). this plant grows in saline(ec < 21 ds/m) and alkaline (ph< 8.6) soils with low organic carbon (c< %1). considering itslong growth period and adaptation of this species to harsh environmental conditions, its use indegraded saline and alkaline rangeland improvement operations is recommended.