A Study of the Vegetation of El Fula Area Western Kordofan State
Ahmed El Houri Ahmed, محمد أحمد محمد إبراهيم
كلية الغابات-جامعة الخرطوم · السودان
This study deals with the ecology and taxonomy of the vegetation ofEl Fula area Es Salam province Western Kordofan State, between longitudes28º ٤٠' N and 28º ٤9' N, latitudes 11º 47' E and 11º ٣٩' E, about 300 Km.South- west El Obied.In this study the ecological aspect focused on plant distribution,density, association, diversity and similarity between season and sites.Qualitative and quantitative analysis to the data collected from thefield resulted in that there was fluctuation in vegetation cover, due totopography of soil, fluctuation of rainfall, human activity and over grazing inthe study area.Biomass and carrying capacity were determined and compared withthat found by Harison (1955) and Hunting Technical Services (1964). Thisstudy shows that there is deterioration in carrying capacity and it wasdecreased from 78 a.u./ km2 in (1955) to 50 a.u./ km2 in (1964) to 12 a.u./km2 This decline was attributed to the disappearance of some of thepreferred grazable species like Blepharis spp. and to the regression of someother species like Cenchrus spp. And Zornis spp.In this research the soil seed bank was also studied on deferent soildepthes . The result was that The number of seeds decreased with theincrease in soil depth, The percentage of trees and shrubs were very low(3%), compared with herbs (47%), grasses (37%), and sedge and parasitesplants (13 %).It was found that there was a considerable difference between thenumber of dead and viable seeds / m2 at the same depth and betweendifferent depths. The number of seeds was calculated and found to be 19700dead seeds / m2 and 7238 viable seeds / m2 on the surface layer (0-5 cm).However, 5333 dead seeds / m2 and 3104 viable seeds / m2 were calculatedfor the second layer (5-10 cm). The dominant viable seed species on thesurface layer (0-5 cm) were Schoenefeldia gracilis, Mollugo nudicaulis,Aristida adscensionis and Dctyloctenium aegypticum.The regeneration of trees and shrubs was determined. Only ten out ofthe twenty-one species have shown new regeneration. The most dominantregenerating species were Acacia mellifera, Balanites aegyptiaca andGueira senegalensis respectively. The number of sapling / ha were 7.7species in the present study whereas 26.7 species were found by FNC(1998) in the same area.In this research also 95 species were recorded, identified andclassified, they were belong to 68 genera, and 32 families. Synonymous andvernacular names and their distribution were out lined. In addition, familyCapparidaceae changed into Capparaceae and Cleomaceae and the familyMulloginaceae changed to Aizoaceae