Native Perennial Plants Colonizing Abandoned Arable Fields in a Desert Area: Population Structure and Community Assembly

Saud L. Al-Rowaily, Dekhil H. Al-Dosari, Abdulaziz M. Assaeed, Ahmed M. Abd-ElGawad, Mohamed A. El-Sheikh, Magdy I. El-Bana and Wafa’a A. Al-Taisan
Additional contact information
Saud L. Al-Rowaily: Department of Plant Production, College of Food & Agric. Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Dekhil H. Al-Dosari: Department of Plant Production, College of Food & Agric. Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz M. Assaeed: Department of Plant Production, College of Food & Agric. Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed M. Abd-ElGawad: Department of Plant Production, College of Food & Agric. Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed A. El-Sheikh: Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Magdy I. El-Bana: Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said 42511, Egypt
Wafa’a A. Al-Taisan: Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: In recent years, the phenomenon of abandonment of arable fields has increased in Saudi Arabia due to low soil fertility, drought, low rainfall, high levels of evapotranspiration, soil salinization, and low level of groundwater. We evaluated the effect of agricultural land abandonment on soil properties, perennial vegetation composition, and population structure in the Al-Kharj region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 11 perennial plant species belonging to 9 families and 11 genera were detected in the different abandoned fields of the study area. Four plant communities were identified after the application of the detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination. The indicator species were (1) Seidlitzia rosmarinus — Zygophyllum hamiense , (2) Traganum nudatum — Seidlitzia rosmarinus , (3) Traganum nudatum — Prosopis farcta , and (4) Calligonum comosum—Pulicaria undulata. Results of the soil analysis showed significant differences in soil texture, pH, salinity, and nutrient content among the four recognized plant communities. Demographic analysis indicated that populations of Zygophyllum hamiense and Calligonum comosum tended to be either inverse J-shaped or positively skewed which may have indicated rapidly-growing populations with high reproductive capacity. Conversely, the size–frequency distribution of Traganum nudatum , S. Rosmarinus, and Prosopis farcta was approximately symmetrical (i.e., bell-shaped). The present study sheds light on the necessity of managing abandoned agricultural fields for restoring and improving rangelands with native species that are adapted to the local conditions such as low water demand.

Keywords: vegetation dynamics; soil composition; glycophytes; abandoned fields; ecological succession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/550/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/550/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:11:p:550-:d:445335

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().