Vegetation-environment relationships in south Nile Delta | ||
| Taeckholmia | ||
| Article 2, Volume 25, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 15-46 PDF (740.92 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/taec.2005.12302 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Kamal Shaltout* 1; Loutfy Hassan2; Emad Farahat2 | ||
| 1Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Tanta University | ||
| 2Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Helwan University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The present study aimed at identifying and analysing the plant communities of the different habitats in south Nile Delta. Two hundred and seventy one stands were selected to represent the variation in seven major types of habitat recognized in the study area (terraces, slopes, water edges, open water, gardens and nurseries, croplands and ditches, fallow and flooded lands. One hundred and forty four species belonging to 110 genera, 43 families and 23 orders were recorded. Species-rich families were Gramineae followed by Compositae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosa, Polygonaceae and Amaranthaceae. Thirteen vegetation groups were recognized after the application of TWINSPAN. Their ordination using DECORANA indicated moisture and human impact gradients. The moisture gradient starts with the xerophytes or drought-tolerant plants that inhabited the dry terraces and slopes of the water courses and ruderal habitats (e.g. Alhagi graecorum, Imperata cylindrica, Phragmites australis and Pluchea dioscorides groups). Then, passing through the mesophytes that inhabited the ditches, gardens and croplands (e.g. Chenopodium ficifolium, Cynodon dactylon-Paspalum dilatatum and Cyperus rotundus-Cynodon dactylon groups), and the species that inhabited the water edges (e.g. Phragmites australis, Pluchea dioscorides, Sorghum bicolor and Cyperus articulatus-Cynodon dactylon groups).The pure aquatic communities that inhabited the open water (e.g. Eichhornia crassipes-Myriophyllum spicatum, Vossia cuspidata and Vossia cuspidata-Eichhornia crassipes groups) represented the other extreme end. The correlations between the soil and water variables on one hand, and the distribution of common species in the study area on the other hand were assessed. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| diversity; Multivariate Analysis; south Nile Delta; species composition | ||
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