Hasnaoui Okkacha

• Biodiversity Journal, 14 (1): 0185-0194

  Hasnaoui Okkacha, Bessaid Farah, Bourouaha Mohamed, Babali Brahim, Aouadj Sid Ahmed & Khatir Hadj
  Post-fire dynamics of the forest formations in the mounts of Tlemcen (Western of Algeria): Case of the Forest of Zarifet
  https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2023.14.1.185.194

  ABSTRACT
  A study on the post-fire dynamics of plant species in the Zarifet forest (National Park of Tlemcen, north-western Algeria) was conducted after a violent fire that destroyed more than 200 hectares in the month of October 2016. Floristic records were done at a control site and the burned area during the phenological period, which extends from 2017 to 2019. The analysis of the floristic succession indicated a continuum of population dynamics over the three years after the fire. The results showed that the number of species found in the burnt sites reached 52 species (39%) after 8 months from the initial fire and 121 of them (91%) at three years afterward. The natural regrowth of the vegetation in the Tlemcen Mountains is typical of the “tiger bush”. The competitivity between the different species has been highlighted in the present study. The most competitive species in the post-fire occupation of the soil are stump-rejecting species and geophytes one, such as Quercus ilex, Chamaerops humilis, Calicotome intermedia, Asparagus acutifolius, Ulex boivinii, Drimia maritima, Cistus sp., Stipa tenacissima and Ampelodesmos mauritanicus. The analysis of the frequency indices (F.I.) seem to be in favor of an expanding tendency of these taxa.

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