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VEGETATION AND
SPECIES ALTITUDINAL DISTRIBUTION IN AL-JABAL AL-AKHDAR
LANDSCAPE, LIBYA
A. K. HEGAZY1*, L. BOULOS2, H. F. KABIEL3 AND O. S. SHARASHY4
Abstract:
Cyrenaica is the largest phytogeographical region in Libya. The region
holds Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar (the Green Mountain) landscape with the richest
vegetation and highest species diversity in the country. Field study of
the vegetation was carried out in the different habitat types
representing the mountainous landscape. Data were analyzed by Detrended
Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis
(CCA) against the environmental variables. Vegetation and species
richness varied with altitude from the sea level, through mid elevation
slope vegetation in wadis, to herbaceous and low-shrub-vegetation
towards the mountain top. Vegetation is classified into three major
groups: (1) coastal and low altitude vegetation dominated by shrubs and
trees which constitute about 60% of the plant life forms; (2) mid
altitude and wadi vegetation with the highest species richness and
dominated by shrubs and trees which constitute over 60% of the plant
life forms; and (3) mountain top vegetation dominated by herbs and few
low shrubs constituting up to 90% of the plant life forms. The altitude,
aspect and soil parameters do not explain the majority of variance in
the obtained data which reveal that other diverse local conditions and
habitat types seem to be the main determinant of vegetation variation in
Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar landscape.
1Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud
University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
(Permanent address: Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Cairo
University, Giza, Egypt).
*Corresponding author email:
akhegazy@Yahoo.com
2Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Alexandria
University, Alexandria, Egypt
3Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza 12613,
Egypt
4Desert Research Center, Merzik, Libya
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