Ecological Characteristics Study of the Vegetation Cover for the Protected Area Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Tripoli-Libya

Malakalrahma Abdurazag Alftisi, Raneem Banur Osman, Rokaia Mohammed Elalem, Fathi Goma Al-Sghair

Abstract


The aim of this research was to investigate the vegetation characteristics to determine the dominant species because the selected study area never has been ecologically studied before. The study was carried out in the period from April to the end of May 2018 two trips per week. To achieve the study, two methods were used Quadrat Method and Lines-transect Method. 19 lines-transect were randomly distributed with a length of 50 meters in the study area. A total of 92 quadrats 4 m2 selected for perennial plants and 60 quadrats 1 m2 for annual plants (grasses) were distributed to the Line-transect; all plant species and their numbers that appeared in the quadrat were recorded. Vegetation characteristics (density, frequency, and abundance) and their relative values of each plant species were calculated from quadrat, whereas cover and the relative cover was calculated from Line-transect. The results showed that the highest density in annual plants was 32.1 plant / m2 for Stipacapensis followed by Scabiosaarenaria with 15.6 plants /m2, while in perennial plants was found (14.7 plant / m2) for Plantagoalbicans followed by Helianthemumlippii  density with (3.26 plant / m2). The obtained results also showed that S.Arenaria has the highest frequency 80%, then S. capensis with 78.30% in annual plants, in perennial plantsP. albicans  has the highest frequency (97.8%) followed by H. lippii  with (70.6%). It appears from results obtained that the highest cover recorded was (15.8%) for S. capensis followed by P. albicans (12.4%).  From the results, the annual plants have the highest value were 187.92 for plant species S. capensis followed by S. arenaria with 148.8. Through the results obtained, the plantcommunity of the study area is Stipa capensis - Scabiosa arenaria Community.

Keywords


Protected area; Vegetation characteristics; Quadrats Method; Lines-transect Method.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ali, S. I., Jafri, S. M. H. & El-Gadi, A. (Eds), 1977-1989: Flora of Libya, 1-147. – Tripoli.

Askari, Y., Kafash,E. S., &Rezaei,D. (2013). Evaluation of different sampling methods to study of shrub density in Zagros forest.European Journal of Experimental Biology, 3, 121–128.

Balouchi, F., Ebrahimi, M., &Taheri, M. (2017). Efficiencies of Two Distance Methods in Estimating Plant Density in Shrublands (Case Study: Tange-Sarheh, Nikshahr). InternationalJournal of Agriculture Innovations and Research,6(2):2319-1473.

Betelmal, A.G. (2010).Classification of the Vegetation cover in the Pasture of Faculty of Agriculture Al Fateh University, Libya. Ass. Univ. Bull. Environ. Res. 13:2.

Buckland, S.T., Borchers, D.L., Johnston, A., Henrys, P.A. & Marques, T.A. 2007.Line transect methods for plant surveys. Biometrics63, 989-998.

Cain, S. A., & Castro, G. M. (1959).Manual of vegetation analysis. Harper, New York. 325p. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Cardinale, B. J., Duffy, J. E., Gonzalez, A., Hooper, D. U., Perrings, C., Venail, P., Narwani, A., Mace, G. M., Tilman, D., Wardle, D. A., Kinzig, A. P., Daily, G. C., Loreau, M., Grace, J. B., Larigauderie, A., Srivastava, D. S. and Naeem, S. (2012).‘Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity’, Nature 486:59–67.

CBD Secretariat. (2010).The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Document UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/X/2.Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya, Japan.

DeFries, R., Hansen, A., Turner, BL., Reid, F.,& Liu J. (2007). Land use change around protected areas: management to balance human needs and ecological function. Ecological Applications, 17(4),1031–1038.

Gayton, D. ( 2013). Grassland and forest understorey vegetation monitoring: An introduction to field methods. Journal of Ecosystems and Management, 14(3):1–9.

IUCN. (1994). Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. IUCN, Gland,

Krebs C.J.(1999). Ecological Methodology. AddisonWesley Longman, New York, NY, USA, 2nd edition.

Liu,S., Baret,F., Allard,D., Jin,X., Andrieu, B., Burger,P.,Hemmerlé, M., &Comar, A.(2017). A method to estimate plant density and plant spacing heterogeneity: application to wheat crops. Plant Methods,13:38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13007-017-0187-1

Mahajan, M. & Fatima, S. (2017).Frequency, Abundance and Density of plant species by listcount Quadrat Method.International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research,III(VII): 21-28.

Sorrells, L. & Glenn, S. (1991). Review of Sampling Techniques used in Studies of Grassland Plant Communities. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci.71:43-45.Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.33258/birex.v1i4.478

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 607 times
PDF - 259 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
 

 

Statcounter for Budapest International Research in Exact Sciences (BirEx Journal)