Vegetation Analysis and Species Distribution in the Lower Tributaries of Wadi Qena in the Eastern Desert of Egypt

Jordan Journal of Biological Sciences

Fawzy M. Salama¹ 

关键词: Vegetation analysis;    Arid ecosystems;    Soil-environment relationships;    Inland wadis;    Distribution patterns;    Egypt.;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Hashemite University, Deanship of Research and Higher Studies

【 摘 要 】

Vegetation composition and soil attributes in the lower tributaries of Wadi Qena in the Eastern Desert of Egypt are studied from fifty-one stands in three wadis, namely Wadi El-Ghuza, Wadi Naq El-Teir, and Wadi El-Atrash. Altogether, fifty-two species from twenty families and thirty-nine genera, mainly of the Saharo-Arabian focus of distribution, were recorded. Chamaephytes and therophytes constituted 73 % of the main bulk of life form the spectrum of the recorded flora. After the removal of unicates, the presence/absence datasets of thirty-six species and fifty-one stands were classified by TWINSPAN yielding four vegetation groups: Zygophyllum coccineum-Zilla spinosa-Calligonum polygonoides (group A) mainly in Wadi Naq El-Teir, Zygophyllum coccineum-Zilla spinosa (group B) in Wadi El-Ghuza, Morettia philaeana (group C) from the southern part of Wadi El-Atrash, and Zygophyllum coccineum-Morettia philaeana (group D) from the northern part of Wadi El-Atrash. These groups were clearly separated along the first two axes of DCA. Soil-vegetation correlations performed by Redundancy Analysis (RDA) indicated that axis 1 was shaped by calcium and organic matter, while axis two was controlled by pH and phosphate contents. Variations of species richness and Shannon diversity index within the separated TWINSPAN groups were highly significant.

【 授权许可】

CC BY