Kamel Khalil, Wafaa Rajab, Ali Thabet, Kamel Ghadeer

(1)- Environmental Prevention Department, Higher Institute for Environmental
Research, Tishreen University.

(2)- Department of Renewable Natural Resources and Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Aleppo.

(*Corrsponding author: Kamel Khalil. Email: d.kamelkhalil@tishreen.edu.sy).

Received: 29/06/2020                                Accepted: 01/09/2020

Abstract

Plant biodiversity has been studied in Khribat Al-Qala’a Forest (Jabal Al-Arbaeen) of the Qardaha-Lattakia region in 2017, which was subjected to a fire in 2007. The study included 5 Releves (surveys) of burnt plant and 5 releves of unburnt plants in all exposures. Plant diversity indices (specific richness, Shannon and Sorenson) and some site characteristics were used to find out the effect of fire on plant diversity. The results showed that the fire led to an increase in plant diversity in all parts of the forest. This increase was positive in the northern and western exposures where the forest maintained its qualitative composition in addition to the new species, while in the southern and eastern exposures was negative due to the spread of spiny and indicators of degradation species at the expense of the main species of the forest and this is due to site conditions where these exposures are characterized by high slopes and a high concentration of calcium carbonate.

Keyword: Plant biodiversity, Forest fire, Lattakia, Syria.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF