The Relevance of Rest Periods in Rangeland Management for Biomass Rehabilitation in Tataouine, Tunisia, Spring 2017

Field visits were carried out during March 2017 and allowed to identify and classify the sites subjected to rest according to the land tenure system and age of the implementation of the technique. During these visits, the main plant communities of the protected rangeland as well as the open grazing sites to be used as control were characterized and the existing plant communities based on the dominant species were identified and delimited. A total of seven sites in southern Tunisia (Chenini community-Tataouine) covering 10600 ha including 5 private rangelands and one communal in addition to the freely grazed site which considered as control were retained for detailed monitoring-assessment study. The vegetation type is mostly consisting of different degraded stages of Stipa tenacissima in the private lands and three main dominant plant communities in the collective lands. In both within the rested sites and the open grazing one (control), experimental plots were established for collecting data on plant cover attributes and biomass production. Once the experimental plots selected, 3 permanent transects of 50 m long each, were established in the different representative plant communities of the target rangeland site and used to determine plant cover parameters according to the points-quadrats method described by Daget and Poissonet (1971). This data could be one of the tools to examine the impact and potential of traditional best practices for rangeland restoration on regeneration and the persistence of plant species by monitoring the evolution of specific characters (global plant cover, specific frequencies, flora richness and the plant density, biomass, rangeland production, and carrying capacity). The state of the soil surface (wind veil, crust, stones, litter) is also studied to monitor and assess changes of soil structure. Both in the rested area and its respective control, biomass production permitting the estimation of the carrying capacity is determined. The first measurement campaign was experiment was conducted during spring, April 2017 (initial state). In each sampling plot, annual plants densities were measured by counting species individuals inside randomly established 5 quadrats with 1 square meter area each. However, the density of perennial plants consisted of counting the number of each species tuft within 5 quadrats of 20 square meters area each.