Bahareh Sohrabi Saraj - PhD Student, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Forestry Department, Tehran, Iran;
Hadi Kiadaliri - Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Forestry Department, Tehran, Iran
Sasan Babaei Kafaki - Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Forestry Department, Tehran, Iran
Reza Akhavan - Associate Professor, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran, Iran;

Yellow Mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus) is one of the impacting pathogens in the Zagros forests of Iran. Spatial variability and mapping of this agent are important for its control and management. For this purpose, a forest patch of 34 ha in the Ilam province of Iran was selected, and 171 individual trees in 24 transects for species, severity and density of infections with Yellow Mistletoe as well as Cartesian coordinates were considered. To investigate the spatial variability and mapping of forest infection, Kriging interpolation method was used. Results showed that 487 of individual trees are infected with Yellow Mistletoe and that its distribution has a strong spatial structure (88%) as well as a hotspot of 222 m range of influence. Appropriate distance for transect sampling was determined to be 134 m, based on a variogram analysis. Kriging showed acceptable variance error for mapping. However, Kriging shows some advantages and thus seems to be more recommendable for the interpolation and mapping of Yellow Mistletoe infection in this region

Interpolation, Kriging, Yellow Mistletoe, Ilam, Iran