Adda ABABOU, Mohammed CHOUIEB, Mohammed KHADER, Khalladi MEDERBAL, Djamel SAIDI

Using vegetation units as salinity predictors in the Lower Cheliff Algeria

The Lower Cheliff plain is among the largest salted soils in north-western Algeria. In order to establish the relationships between the main soil factors and plant species in this stressed ecosystem, 133 relevés related to soil and vegetation were realized. Soil variables measured included electrical conductivity and calcium carbonate. The 133 relevés were arranged in clusters using k-means classification. The similarity analysis used to examine the variation in vegetation assemblage structure showed significant differences in taxonomical composition among groups of relevés. The phi coefficient of fidelity used then to extract the different vegetation units and to measure species concentration in each vegetation unit enabled us to extract a synoptic table with 6 vegetation units, exclusively related to conductivity. The results of redundancy analysis were concordant with k-means clustering results and showed that conductivity is the main factor affecting the vegetation distribution in the Lower Cheliff plain whereas CaCO3 plays a secondary role. The approach used in this study enabled us to extract 4 ranges of salinity in the Lower Cheliff according to the optimum of salinity tolerated by each vegetation unit.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Key words: Analysis of similarity, fidelity, vegetation unit, conductivity, Lower Cheliff, Algeria

Using vegetation units as salinity predictors in the Lower Cheliff Algeria

Keywords:

Key words: Analysis of similarity, fidelity, vegetation unit, conductivity, Lower Cheliff, Algeria,

PDF

___

Abd El-Ghani MM & Amer WM (2003). Soil-vegetation relationships in coastal desert plain of southern Sinai, Egypt. J Arid Environ 55: 607-628.
Braun Blanquet J (1928). Pflanzensoziologie. Gründzuge der Vegetationskunde. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Bruelheide H (2000). A new measure of fidelity and its application to defining species groups. J Veg Sci 11: 167-178.
Chytrý M, Tichý L, Holt J & Botta-Dukát Z (2002). Determination of diagnostic species with statistical fidelity measures. J Veg Sci 13: 79-90.
Chytrý M & Tichý L (2003). Diagnostic, constant and dominant species of vegetation classes and alliances of the Czech Republic: a statistical revision. Folia Fac Sci Nat Univ Masaryk Brun, Biol 108: 1-23.
Clarke KR (1993). Non-parametric multivariate analysis of changes in community structure. Australian J Ecol 18: 117-143.
Clarke KR & Gorley RN (2001). PRIMER v5: User Manual/ Tutorial. PRIMER-E Ltd., Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK.
Clarke KR & Warwick RM (1994). Changes in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. Plymouth: Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
Curtis JT (1959). The vegetation of Wisconsin: an ordination of plant communities. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Desoyza AG, Whitford WG, Turner SJ, Van Zee JW & Johnson AR (2000). Assessing and monitoring the health of western rangeland watersheds. Environ Monitor Assess 64: 153-166.
Fernandez-Gimenez M & Allen-Diaz B (2001). Vegetation change along gradients from water sources in three grazed Mongolian ecosystems. Plant Ecol 157: 101-118.
Flahault C & Schroter C (1910). Rapport sur la nomenclature phytogéographique. Proceedings of the 3rd International Botanical Congress, Brussels, 1: 131-164.
Fulbright TE (2004). Disturbance effects on species richness of herbaceous plants in a semi-arid habitat. J Arid Environ 58: 119- 133.
Hammer O, Harper DAT & Ryan PD (2001). PAST: Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4(1), p. 9.
Hill MO & Gauch HG (1980). Detrended correspondence analysis, an improvised ordination technique. Vegetatio 42: 47-58.
Hoveizeh H (1997). Study of the vegetation cover and ecological characteristics in saline habitats of Hoor-e-Shadegan. J Res Const 34: 27-31.
Jongman RHG, Ter Braak CJF & Van Tongeren OFR (1996). Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Legendre P & Legendre L (1998). Numerical Ecology. (2nded.), Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Leps J & Smilauer P (2003) Multivariate analysis of ecological data using CANOCO. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacQueen JB (1967). Some Methods for classification and Analysis of Multivariate Observations. Proceedings of 5thBerkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability. Berkeley: University of California Press 1: 281-297.
McDonald DJ, Cowling RM & Boucher C (1996). Vegetation- environment relationships on a species-rich coastal mountain range in the fynbos biome (South Africa). Vegetatio 123: 165- 182.
Mueller-Dombois D & Ellenberg H (1974). Aims and methods of vegetation ecology. New York: John Wiley.
Parker K (1991). Topography, substrate, and vegetation patterns in the northern Sonoran Desert. J Biogeo 18: 151-163.
Rowe JS (1984). Forestland classification: limitations of the use of vegetation. In: Bockheim JG (ed.) Proceedings of the symposium, forest land classification: experiences, problems, perspectives. pp. 132-147. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Sokal RR & Rohlf FJ (1995). Biometry. The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research. (3rded.), New York: Freeman WH and Company.
Spath H (1980). Cluster analysis algorithms for data reduction and classification of objects. New York: Wiley J and Sons.
Tichý, L. 2002. JUICE, software for vegetation classification. J Veg Sci 13: 451-453.
Tichý L & Chytrý M (2006). Statistical determination of diagnostic species for site groups of unequal size. J Veg Sci 17: 809-818.
Tracy BF & Sanderson MA (2000). Patterns of plant species richness in pasture lands of the northeast United States. Plant Ecol 149: 169-180.
Turner J & Kelly J (1981). Relationships between soil nutrients and vegetation in a north coast forest. Aust Forest Res 11: 201-208.
Wang GG (1995). White spruce site index in relation to soil, understory vegetation, and foliar nutrients. Cana J Forest Res 25: 29-38.
Westhoff V & Van Der Maarel E (1978). The Braun-Blanquet approach. In: Whittaker RH (ed.) Classification of plant communities, pp. 287-399. Dr. Junk W, The Hague.
Whittaker RH (1962). Classification of natural communities. Bot Rev 28: 1-239.