FACTORS AFFECTING THE FLORISTIC DIVERSITY AND NESTEDNESS IN THE ISLETS OF LAKE BARDAWIL, NORTH SINAI, EGYPT: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION العوامل المؤثرة على التنوع والتوزيع المتداخل للفلورة الموجودة على الجزر الصغيرة في بحيرة البردويل بشمال سيناء: نتائج للحماية | ||||
| Assiut University Bulletin for Environmental Researches | ||||
| Article 3, Volume 12.1, Issue 12.1, March 2009, Page 19-38 PDF (1.17 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/auber.2009.149535 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to investigate the ecological mechanisms related to the observed pattern of floristic diversity and nestedness in the LakeBardawil islets on the Mediterranean coast of Sinai Peninsula before the execution of the North Sinai Agricultural Development Project (NSADP) that will threaten the ecosystem of the lake. Plant species on 15 islets were identified and categorized into ecological groups related to their life-form, salt tolerance and succulence. Richness of total plant species and their ecological groups were positively correlated with islet area, number of habitats and elevation, and negatively with disturbance index. The temperature calculator detected highly significant nestedness for the entire flora and all ecological groups. Distance from the mainland had no effect on either species richness or nested pattern of total plant species and their ecological groups. Both the analyses of species richness and nested distribution yielded evidence for a positive species–area relationship. Although nestedness was detected for the entire plant species and their ecological groups, many species and islets exhibited idiosyncratic distribution. Idiosyncrasies could be mainly attributed to demographic stochasticity which is an important character for species interaction and diversity maintenance in arid regions. Therefore, in developing conservation strategies for the LakeBardawil islets, it is important to incorporate spatial and temporal stability of populations. أجريت هذه الدراسة لتحديد العوامل البيئية المؤثرة على التنوع والتوزيع المتداخل للفلورة الموجودة على الجزر الصغيرة ببحيرة البردويل بشبه جزيرة سيناء قبل تشغيل المشروع الزراعي التنموي بشمال سيناء، والذي سيهدد النظام البيئي للبحيرة. وقد تم رصد الأنواع النباتية الموجودة على 15 جزيرة صغيرة، ومن ثم تقسيمها إلى مجموعات بيئية تبعاً للطرز الحياتية، وتحمل الملوحة، وقوامها العصيري. وقد أظهرت النتائج وجود علاقة طردية بين تنوع الأنواع وکذلک مجموعاتها البيئية مع کلاً من مساحة الجزر، وعدد المواطن البيئية، والارتفاع عن سطح البحر. وقد أظهر حاسب الحرارة للتداخل وجود توزيع متداخل کلي للأنواع النباتية ومجموعاتها البيئية. وبينت نتائج الدراسة عدم تأثر تنوع الأنواع أو توزيعاتها المتداخلة على الجزر بالمسافة من البر الرئيسي. ولقد دلل کلاً من تحليل تنوع الأنواع والتوزيع المتداخل على وجود علاقة موجبة بين الأنواع والمساحة. وعلى الرغم من وجود توزيع متداخل کلي للأنواع النباتية ومجموعاتها البيئية؛ فقد وجد عدد کبير من الأنواع والجزر ذات توزيع تمييزي، ويرجع ذلک التوزيع إلى الديموغرافية العشوائية، والتي تعتبر خاصية مميزة للتفاعل بين الأنواع والمحافظة على التنوع في المناطق الجافة. ومن خلال نتائج هذه الدراسة يتضح أهمية وضع استراتيجية للمحافظة على التنوع النباتي لجزر بحيرة البردويل، من خلال رصد التغيرات المکانية والزمنية للمجتمعات النباتية. | ||||
| References | ||||
|
REFERENCES:
Atmar, W. & Patterson, B.D., (1993): The measure of order and disorder in the distribution of species in fragmented habitat. Oecologia 96, 373-382.
Atmar, W. & Patterson, B.D., (1995): The Nestedness Temperature Calculator: a visual basic program, including 294 presence absence matrices. AICS Research, Inc., University Park, NM and the Field Museum, Chicago, IL.
Baha El Din, S.M., (1992): Notes on the herpetology of North Sinai. Brit. Herpetol. Soc. Bull., 41, 9-11.
Boecklen, W.J., (1997): Nestedness, biogeo-graphic theory, and the design of nature reserves. Oecologia 112, 123-142.
Boulos, L., (1995): Flora of Egypt, a checklist. Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo. 287 p.
Boulos, L. & Gibali, M., (1993): List of rare, vulnerable, endangered and endemic species of vascular plants in Sinai Peninsula. Proc. Egypt Environ., 11, 275-282.
Brown, J.H. & Lomolino, M.V., (1989): On the nature of scientific revolutions: independent discovery of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography. Ecology 70, 1954-1957.
Buckley, R.C., (1985): Distinguishing the effects of area and habitat types on island plant species richness by separating floristic elements and substrate types and controlling for island isolation. J. Biogeogr. 12, 527-535
Butaye, J., Jacquemyn, H. & Hermy, M., (2001): Differential colonization causing non-random forest plant community structure in a fragmented agricultural landscape. Ecography 24, 369-380.
Chesson, P., Gebauer, R.L.E., Schwinning, S., Huntly, N., Wiegand, K., Ernest, M.S.K., Sher, A., Novoplansky, A. & Weltzin, J.F., (2004):Resource pulses, species interactions, and diversity maintenance in arid and semi-arid environments. Oecologia 141, 236-253.
Cook, R.C., (1995): The relationship between nested subsets, habitat subdivision and species diversity. Oecologia101, 204-210.
Danin, A., (1996): Plants of desert dunes. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. 200 p.
Danin, A. and Plitman, U., (1987): Revision of the plant geographical territories of Israel and Sinai. Plant Sys. Evol., 156, 43-53.
Duarte, M.C., Rego, F., Romeiras, M.M. and Moreira, I., (2008): Plant species richness in the Cape Verde Islands - eco-geographical determinants. Biodiv. Conserv., 17, 453-466.
El-Bana, M.I., (2003): Environmental and biological effects on vegetation composition and plant diversity of threatened Mediterranean coastal desert of Sinai Peninsula. PhD Thesis. Univ Antwerpen. 150 p.
El-Bana M.I., (2006): Floristic composition of a threatened Mediterranean sabkhat of Sinai. In: Khan, M.A., Böer, B., Kust, G.S., Barth, H. (Eds.) Sabkha Ecosystems II, Springer Publishers, Amsterdam, pp. 109-122.
El-Bana, M.I., Khedr, A.A., Van Hecke, P. & Bogaert, J., (2002): Vegetation composition of a threatened hypersaline Lake (Lake Bardawil), North Sinai. Plant Ecol., 163, 63-75.
El-Bana, M.I., Nijs, I. & Khedr, A.A., (2003): The importance of phytogenic mounds (Nebkhas) for restoration of arid degraded rangelands in Northern Sinai. Rest. Ecol.11, 317-324.
El-Bana, M.I., Li, Z.Q. & Nijs, I., (2007): Role of host identity in effects of phytogenic mounds on plant assemblages and species richness on coastal arid dunes. J. Veg. Sci.18, 635-644.
El-Kady, H.F. & EL-Shourbagy, M.N., (1994): Vegetation changes in North Sinai within three decades. J. Coast. Res. 10, 978-986.
Faith, D.P. & Walker, P.A., (1996): Environmental diversity: on the best-possible use of surrogate data for assessing the relative biodiversity of sets of areas. Biodiv. Conserv., 5, 399-415.
Fischer, J. & Lindenmayer, D.B., (2005): Perfectly nested or significantly nested– an important difference for conservation management. Oikos 109, 485-494.
Fleishman, E., Donnelly, R., Fay, J. & Reeves, R., (2007): Applications of nestedness analyses to biodiversity conservation in developing landscapes. Landscape and Urban Plann., 81,271-281.
Gentile, G. & Argano, R., (2005): Island biogeography of the Mediterranean sea: the species relationship for terrestrial isopods. J. Biogeogr., 32, 1715-1726.
Gibali, M.A., (1988): Studies on the flora of Northern Sinai. M.Sc. Thesis, Cairo Univ., Cairo.
Goldberg, D.E., Rajaniemi, T., Gurevitch, J. & Stewart-Oaten, A.,(1999): Empirical approaches to quantifying interaction intensity: competition and facilitation along productivity gradients. Ecology 80, 1118-1131.
Gotelli, N.J. & McCabe, D.J., (2002): Species co-occurrence: a meta-analysis of J.M. Diamond’s assembly rules model. Ecology 83, 2091–2096.
Gutterman, Y., (1994): Strategies of seed dispersal and germination in plants inhabiting deserts. Bot. Rev.60, 373-425.
Honnay, O., Hermy, M. & Coppin, P., (1999): Nested plant communities in deciduous forest fragments: species relaxation or nested habitats. Oikos 84, 119-129.
Kadmon, R., (1995): Nested species subsets and geographic isolation: a case study. Ecology 76, 458-465.
Khedr, A.A. & Lovett-Doust, J., (2000): Determinants of floristic diversity and vegetation composition on the islands of Lake Burollos, Egypt. Applied Veget. Sci., 3, 147-156.
Khedr, A.A., Cadotte, M.W., El-Keblawy, A. & Lovett-Doust, J., (2002): Phylogenetic diversity and ecological features in the Egyptian flora. Biodiv. Conserv. 11, 1809-1824.
Koh, L.P., Sodhi, N.S, Tan. H.T.W. & Peh, K.S.H., (2002): Factors affecting the distribution of vascular plants, springtails, butterflies and birds on small tropical islands. J. Biogeogr. 29, 93–108.
Kohn, D.D. & Walsh, D.M., (1994): Plant species richness–the effect of island size and habitat diversity. J. Ecol., 82, 367-377.
Krumglaz, B.S., Hornung, H. & Oren, O.H., (1980): The study of a natural hypersaline lagoon in a desert area (the Bardawil Lagoon in northern Sinai). Estuar. Coast. Mar. Sci., 10, 403-415.
Lomolino, M.V., (1996): Investigating causality of nestedness of insular communities: selective immigration or extinctions? J. Biogeogr., 23, 699-703.
Lomolino, M.V. & Smith, G.A., (2003): Prairie dog towns as islands: applications of island biogeography and landscape ecology for conserving nonvolant terrestrial vertebrates. Global Ecol. Biogeogr., 12, 275-286.
MacArthur, R.H. & Wilson, E.O., (1967): The theory of island biogeography. Princeton Univ. Press. New Jersey.
Maron, M., Mac Nally, R., Watson, M.D. & Lill, A., (2004): Can the biotic nestedness matrix be used predictively? Oikos 106, 433-444.
Martinez-Morales, M.A., (2005): Nested species assemblages as a tool to detect sensitivity to forest fragmentation: the case of cloud forest birds. Oikos 108, 634-642.
Moody, A., (2000): Analysis of plant species diversity with respect to island characteristics on the Channel Islands, California. J. Biogeogr. 27, 711-723.
Nilsson, I.N. & Nilsson, S.G., (1982): Turnover of vascular plant species on small islands in lake Mökeln, south Sweden 1976–1980. Oecologia 53, 128-133.
Panitsa, M., Tzanoudakis, D., Triantis, K.A. & Sfenthourakis, S., (2006): Patterns of species richness on very small islands: the plants of the Aegean archipelago. J. Biogeogr. 33, 1223-1234.
Patterson, B.D. (1990): On the temporal development of nested subset patterns of species composition. Oikos 59, 330-342.
Patterson, B.D. & Atmar, W., (2000): Analyzing species composition in fragments. Bon. Zool. Monog., 46, 9-24.
Ramsar, (1991): Ramsar advisory missions: Report No. 26, Egypt. Lakes Bardawil and Burullus. http://ramsar.org/ram_pt_ 26e. htm.
Raunkiaer, C., (1934): The life forms of plants and statistical plant geography. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.
Rosenzweig, M.L., (1995): Species Diversity in Space and Time. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Rydin, H. & Borgegåd, S.O., (1988): Plant species richness on islands over a century of primary succession in Lake Hjälmaren. Ecology 69, 916-927.
Sfenthourakis, S., Giokas, S. & Mylonas, M., (1999): Testing for nestedness in the terrestrial isopods and snails of Kyklades islands (Aegean archipelago, Greece). Ecography 22, 384-395.
Sfenthourakis, S., Giokas, S. & Tzanatos, E., (2004):From sampling stations to archipelagos: investigating aspects of the assemblage of insular. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 13, 23-35.
Shaheen, S.E., (1998): Geoenvironmental studies on El-Bardawil lagoon and its surroundings, North Sinai, Egypt. Ph.D. Thesis, Mansoura Univ., Mansoura.165 p.
Shilo-Volin, H., Novoplansky, A., Goldberg, D.E. & Turkington R., (2005): Density regulation in annual plant communities under variable resource levels. Oikos 108, 241-252.
Sternberg, M., Gutman, M., Perevolotsky, A., Ungar, E. & Kigel, J. (2000):Vegetation response to grazing management in a Mediterranean herbaceous community: a functional group approach. J. Applied Ecol., 37, 224-237.
Täckholm, V., (1974): Students Flora of Egypt. Cairo Univ. Press, Cairo. 423 p.
Tielbörger, K. (1997): The vegetation of linear desert dunes in the north-western Negev, Israel. Flora 192, 261-278.
Tielbörger, K. & Kadmon, R., (2000): Temporal environmental variation tips the balance between facilitation and interference in desert plants. Ecology81, 1544-1553.
Werner, U. & Buszko, J., (2005): Detecting diversity hot spots using species-area and endemics-area relationships: the case of butterflies. Biodiv. Conserv. 14, 1977-1988.
Whittaker, R.J. (2000): Scale, succession and complexity in island biogeography: are we asking the right questions? Global Ecol. Biogeogr., 9, 75-85.
Wright, D.H., Patterson, B.D., Mikkelson, G.M., Cutler, A. &Atmar,W., (1998): A comparative analysis of nested subset patterns of species composition. Oecologia 113, 1-20.
Zahran, M., Willis, A.J., (1992): The vegetation of Egypt. Chapman and Hall, London.
| ||||
|
Statistics Article View: 116 PDF Download: 147 |
||||
