Zuheir Shater *(1) and Bassam AlSSaleh AlAbed (2)
(1) . Department of Forestry and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Syria.
(2) . Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Zuheir Shater, E.mail: zuheirshater@yahoo.com ).
Received: 12/01/2023 Accepted: 2/05/2023
Abstract:
Plant biodiversity was studied during the period 2009-2022 in 10 circular samples of 400 m2, in the regions of Qastal Maaf (Lattakia Governorate) and Al-Qadmus (Tartous Governorate) using several indicators such as Specific Richness, Shannon index, and Jacquard index, in terms of composition, structure, and functionality. Most indicators showed a positive trend in their values during the studied period, but most of the differences were not statistically significant. In terms of composition, the average specific richness increased from 34.8 ± 6 to 36.8 ± 0.2 species, and the Shannon index increased from 4.86 ± 0.3 bytes to 4.88 ± 0.3 bytes, and the Jacquard Similarity Index value reached 52.7% during the studied period. From a functional point of view, the arrangement of the proportions of life forms differed between the two years of the study, but the differences between the averages of these ratios were slight and non-significant except for the phanerophytes and Chamaephytes, while the dispersal patterns maintained the order of their ratios during the studied period without significant differences except for the dispersal model by ants (Mirmecochory(, which decreased significantly. From a structural point of view, the results showed a decrease in the average coverage of the grassy layer during the study period, while this average increased for the shrubby and trees layers, but these differences were not statistically significant. The study showed that the results could be affected by the studied temporal and spatial scale, and therefore suggested the need to continue evaluating these indicators on various temporal and spatial scales.
KeyWords: Compositional diversity, structural diversity, functional diversity, temporal scale, spatial scale.
Full paper in Arabic: pdf