Biodiversity and Vegetation Dynamics of Tetraclinis Articulata Stands in the Tlemcen Region (western Algeria)

Abstract

Berber red cedar is endemic to western North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). Most of the Tetraclinaie range is located in the warm temperate semi-arid bioclimatic zone. It offers great ecological diversity in our study area, and therefore a great adaptive strategy to drought.

Our study focuses on the assessment of vegetation dynamics through phytoecological analysis of Tetraclinis articulata matorral groups in the Honaine littoral in the Tlemcen region (northwestern Algeria). It is based on physiological, biometric, climatic, edaphic and syntaxonomic aspects. A comparison of the various biological, morphological and biogeographical spectra reveals the importance of therophytes, which undoubtedly confirms the degradation caused by the therophytization of all the formations predicted by several authors. Despite the presence of a shrub layer, which may give the illusion of a forest, this is no longer a forest ecosystem but a pre-forest ecosystem transformed into sparse matorral. This degradation confirms the impoverishment of the plant's flora, especially sylvatic species, which have given way to ephemeral therophytes and chamaephytes adapted to common, repetitive fires. The results of the various spectra provide an initial basis for assessing the adaptive potential of cedar against degradation factors.

Finally, this study has enabled us to identify the ecological and biological behavior of Tetraclinis articulata and certain accompanying plant species that have difficulty resisting ecological stress in this area, and it is to be expected that if the latter becomes more pronounced, their rarity, or even their disappearance, will be inevitable.