Vegetation analysis along irrigation and drain canals in Damietta province, Egypt
2001
Mashaly, I.A. | El-Halawany, E.F. | Omar, G. (Mansoura Univ. (Egypt). Botany Dept.)
The present study provides an investigation of the vegetation analysis, a quantitative assessment of the main soil characteristics and an evaluation of the relationships between the major identified vegetation groups and environmental attributes along the canals and drains in Damietta Province. Vegetation and soil were sampled in 65 stands representing the net of canals, drains and the shoreline of Lake Manzala at the borderland of Damietta area. Relative values of cover and density were determined for each species and were summed up to provide an estimate of its importance value. The physical and chemical characteristics of soil samples were determined for each stand. The classification (TWINSPAN) and ordination (DCA) techniques of the stands led to recognition of four vegetation groups, namely: group A dominated by Cynodon dactylon, group B dominated by Phragmites australis, group C codominated by Arthrocnemum macrostachyum- Phragmites ausiralis and group D dominated by Phragmites australis. The light was thrown on the main factors influencing the vegetational group using Canonical Correspondence Analysis [CCA]. The percentages of clay, moisture content, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, chlorides, sodium, calcium and potassium are the most effective environmental variables which showed significant correlations with the first and second ordination axes. Accordingly, these soil variables seem to be the most important ecological factors influencing the distribution of vegetation in the study area.
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