Understanding ecological processes is a prerequisite for the management of rangelands;therefore, recognition of the relationship between environmental factors and vegetation is very important.The present research aims to investigateenvironmental and management factors affecting rangeland vegetation distribution in Saral rangelands of Kurdistan province, Iran,in 2017. Sampling was done in eightvegetation typesalong four 300mtransects. Fifteen1m2plots establishedalong each transect in 20mdistances. Tensoilsamplesalongtransectswere taken according to theplantsroot depthin the averagedepth 0-50cmin10profileswithineachvegetation type. Various environmental factors such as topographic factors (slope, aspect,andelevation), soil physical properties (depths, soil texture, gravel,andsaturation moisture) and variouschemical factors such as acidity, electrical conductivity, lime, gypsum, nitrogen, phosphor,andpotassium were measured and grazing intensity considered and measured as managerialfactor. The collecteddata were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the important factors affecting plant community distributionwere determined. According to the results, first and second components accountfor 39.29% and 26.28% of communitydistribution,respectively. The results showed that among various environmental and grazing factors affecting plant distribution, soil texture,soil depth, grazing intensity, elevation, potassium and gravelhad the most significant effects on presentplant communitydistribution in studiedrangeland. Silt, graveland grazing intensity play important rolesin the spatialdistribution of vegetation communities,respectively.
