Abeer Ibrahem*(1) and Samaher Damserko(1)
(1). Department of Forestry and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Abeer Ibrahem. E-Mail: ink_abeer@yahoo.com).
Received: 07/10/2018 Accepted: 16/01/2019
Abstract
The research aimed to study the structure of the current forest stands at the Cedrus libani A. Richard natural forest on the eastern aspect of the coastal mountain range in Slenfeh, Syria. 48 samples were selected with an area of 100 m2. The dendrometric characteristics of forest stands (density, diameter, basal area and crown coverage) were identified in the selected samples. The forest measurements were compared using Wallis-Kruskal Test (KW) at 5 % level of significance using SPSS. The results showed that the forest stands were characterized by a high diversity of composition and structure. The Cedrus libani was the dominant forest species, although its distributed is non homogeneously, in addition to another group of forest species which were Juniperus drupacea Labill., Quercus infectoria Oliv., Ostrya carpinifolia Scop., Quercus libani Oliv., Quercus cerris L. subsp. pseudocerris (Boiss.) Chalabi, Quercus brantii Lind., Fraxinus orunus L., and finally Quercus calliprinos Weeb. The Cedrus libani was superior to other forest species in all its forest characteristics, while its juveniles declined in their forest characteristics against many other forest species.
Key Words: Forest structure, Dendrometric characteristics, Cedrus libani, Slenfeh, Syria.
Full Paper in Arabic: PDF