The study focused on one of the important contemporary environmental problems, land deterioration, carried out on a semi-desert rangeland constrained by aridity, in an area stretching between two small cities （Solouk...The study focused on one of the important contemporary environmental problems, land deterioration, carried out on a semi-desert rangeland constrained by aridity, in an area stretching between two small cities （Solouk and A1-Abyar） south of the city of Benghazi in north eastern Libya. The vegetation analysis revealed that the plant life is mainly confined to wadis （valleys）. Average vegetation cover was ranging between 39.53% and 69.20%. Biomass was ranging between 28.33 gm/m2 and 129.42 gm/m2, （average soil depth was between 30 cm and 50 cm）, meanwhile 25% of the area is covered by hummocks. The total number of sampled soil seed bank was 25,870 seed/m2, in which the important forage family Fabaceae constituted 450 seed/m2. Life forms spectrum was： 55.2% Therophytes, 26.3% Chamaeopytes, 11.4% Cryptophytes and 7.1% Phanerophytes. Alpha diversity 1.3%-3.4%, and Beta diversity 11.9%-77.6%. The soil showed low organic matter content an lean to alkalinity. The study showed that the area is characterized by harsh climate elements which led to land degradation in the form of low productivity, retrogressive succession, soil erosion, and sandy encroachment from the south desert area. In the last decades the land degradation was accelerated by the accumulative anthropogenic.展开更多
文摘The study focused on one of the important contemporary environmental problems, land deterioration, carried out on a semi-desert rangeland constrained by aridity, in an area stretching between two small cities （Solouk and A1-Abyar） south of the city of Benghazi in north eastern Libya. The vegetation analysis revealed that the plant life is mainly confined to wadis （valleys）. Average vegetation cover was ranging between 39.53% and 69.20%. Biomass was ranging between 28.33 gm/m2 and 129.42 gm/m2, （average soil depth was between 30 cm and 50 cm）, meanwhile 25% of the area is covered by hummocks. The total number of sampled soil seed bank was 25,870 seed/m2, in which the important forage family Fabaceae constituted 450 seed/m2. Life forms spectrum was： 55.2% Therophytes, 26.3% Chamaeopytes, 11.4% Cryptophytes and 7.1% Phanerophytes. Alpha diversity 1.3%-3.4%, and Beta diversity 11.9%-77.6%. The soil showed low organic matter content an lean to alkalinity. The study showed that the area is characterized by harsh climate elements which led to land degradation in the form of low productivity, retrogressive succession, soil erosion, and sandy encroachment from the south desert area. In the last decades the land degradation was accelerated by the accumulative anthropogenic.
