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English
Y. M. El-Barasi, J. F. Mohammad
Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Garyounis University, Benghazi, Libya
Journal of Science and Its Applications Vol 1, No 2:1-14 (September 2007)
Abstract
This is the comparative study of seed bank of agricultural areas which lies in eastern coast of libya at the first terrace of El-jabal El-Akhdar area, located between 20o 30/-21o E longitude and 32o – 32o 30/N latitude at El-Aggouria, Butraba, El-Bakour and El-Marj area to determine transient and permanent seed bank, comparison of the density of seed bank and total biomass/gm/m2 between seedling of agricultural lands and natural vegetation, identification of emerged seedlings, estimation of remnant portion of seeds, dominant species and viability of dormant seeds.
From germination experiment all seedlings, were annuals, 55 species germinated in the soil seed bank belonging to 49 genera and 17 families, according to the number of species the largest family represented were Poaceae and Asteraceae ( 12 species ) followed by Fabaceae ( 10 species ) and then Brassicaceae ( 4 species ), the highest seedling density was in natural vegetation around wheat field (844 seedlings/m2) with percentage 37.4%, while the lowest density was in apricots farm ( 15 seedlings/m2 ) with
percentage 0.66%, the largest number of dormant seeds was in natural vegetation around cactus farm ( 7367 seeds/m2 ) with percentage 10.97 %, where the lowest number was in natural vegetation around graded hills ( 326 seeds/ m2 ) with percentage 0.49 %, there were significant differences in number of emerged seedlings between agricultural lands and natural vegetation ( P < 0.05 ). From seed density experiment the highest number of seeds was in sample of barley field (9051 seeds/ m2) with percentage 12.6 %, while the lowest number of seeds was in sample of peach farm (2311 seeds/m2 ) with percentage 3.22 %, there were not significant differences between
agricultural lands and natural vegetation (P > 0.05 ), percentage of viability of seeds was 16.7%.
Keywords: Seed bank; Arable lands; Jabal El-Akhder.
Link/DOI: http://garyounis.edu/jsciapp/v1_2/1-14.pdf