PJB-2021-601
Phytodiversity in relation to ecovariability of Thawr and Eir mountains, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia
Usama K Abdel-Hameed, Wael A. Obaid and Tahar Boutraa
Abstract
Thawr and Eir mountains are two of the main important and historical mountains in the region of Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah. However, floristic studies on these mountains have not been conducted. In this study, human activities and their impacts on the species diversity and soil characteristics of these mountains were considered. The current study aims to investigate: plant species distribution, species richness, life forms of plant species and the impact of soil composition on these parameters across the scanned mountains. A total of 48 species belonging to 44 genera and 23 families are recorded. The largest represented families were Fabaceae and Asteraceae. The spectrum of life-form showed that the most frequent life form was Therophyte. The major chorotypes distribution in the two studied mountains was investigated. Using of A Two-Way Indicator Species (TWINSPAN) technique on the relative importance values (IV) of the recorded species in 20 sampled stands distinguished six vegetation groups: two were representing Thawr mountain communities and four were representing Eir mountain communities, which was visualized through Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA). A Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was applied on the six TWINSPAN groups to explore the correlations between the generated vegetation groups and the different environmental parameters; stands of Eir mountain were highly correlated with elevation, longitude, latitude and pH while Thawr mountain stands showed a correlation with Ca++, TDS, EC, Carbonate, Nitrate and Mg++. It was found that Eir mountain gained the highest species richness and dominance according to the Berger-Parker formula while evenness, abundance and diversity reached their maximum values at Thawr mountain. It is concluded that human impacts may have a negative effect on species abundance, evenness and diversity at Eir mountain as compared with those of Thawr mountain. So authors recommend planning an ecological restoration strategy to maintain the diversity level at Eir mountain.
To Cite this article:
Abdel-Hameed, U.K., W.A. Obaid and T. Boutraa. 2023. Phytodiversity in relation to ecovariability of Thawr and Eir mountains, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia. Pak. J. Bot., 55(4): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2023-4(30)
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