Microhabitats Affect Population Size and Plant Vigor of Three Critically Endangered Endemic Plants in Southern Sinai Mountains, Egypt

Amal M. Fakhry, Ali El-Keblawy, Hatem A. Shabana, Ibrahim El Gamal and Amir Shalouf
Additional contact information
Amal M. Fakhry: Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21568, Egypt
Ali El-Keblawy: Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Sharjah, P. O.Box 27272 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Hatem A. Shabana: Sharjah Seed Bank and Herbarium, Sharjah Research Academy, P.O. Box 27272 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Ibrahim El Gamal: Nature Conservation Sector, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo 11728, Egypt
Amir Shalouf: Nature Conservation Sector, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Cairo 11728, Egypt

Land, 2019, vol. 8, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Endemic species on mountains often have narrow altitudinal ranges and are more threatened at the higher altitudes, especially with climate changes. However, plants could use special microhabitats at the mountain tops as proper places for surviving the climate change (i.e., refugia). We assessed population attributes of three critically endangered endemic species ( Primula boveana Decne ex Duby, Rosa arabica Crep., and Silene leucophylla Boiss.) in two growing seasons (2006/2007 and 2013/2014), differing in the received rainfalls in microhabitats at the high mountains of southern Sinai. Both P. boveana and S. leucophylla had very small population size, but significantly increased in the 2013/2014 growing season which received above average rainfalls. The population of R. arabica is the smallest (around 40 individuals) and did not increase, even after the increase in rainfalls. Whereas P. boveana is present in fewer sites and grew in small number of specific microhabitats, both S. leucophylla and R. arabica were recorded in most studied sites and habitat types. Unlike R. arabica , both P. boveana and S. leucophylla were recorded in caves and steep slopes and on the top of the mountains. This indicates that these sheltered mist microhabitats are the best for future conservation of these species after climate change.

Keywords: endangered species; climate change; population size; conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/6/86/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/6/86/ (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:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:6:p:86-:d:236019

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

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