An Ecological Study of the Vegetation on the Eastern Escarpment of Eritrea Ethiopia
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Date
1984-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
An ecological study of the vegetation on the Eastern
Escarpment of Eritrea from an altitude of 190 meters to an
altitude of 2075 meters above sea ;level Vias performed.
seventy-seven stands \o[ere selected systematically and all
plants found in the stands \o[ere recorded as present. A
number of environmental factors including slope, aspect,
altitude and percentage of rock cover at the surface \vere
measured. Soils sample Vlere also taken from each stand and
analysed for texture organic matter, color, conductivity,
pH and the cations K, Ca, Mg; Na and Mn. The vegetation
data Vlere analysed by tVlo"vIaY indicator species analysis and
10 homogenous groups of stands were formed. The groups of
stands Vlere compared for their averaged environmental factors
using the t-test. Rank correlation was also computed for the
averages of the different environmental factor in each stand grouP.
The groups of stands Vlere observed to shoVi the highest
number of contrasts in altitude. Altitude in itself does
have any effect on the distribution of vegetation, but it is
associated with changes in atmospheric pressure, moisture,
temperature and other factors. In the study region the amount
and distribution 6f moisture was the factor that Vias mostly
highly associated with altitude. It can thus be said that the
main cause for the variation in vegetation on the Eastern
Escarpment of Eritrea was the difference in moisture. Variaticn of moisture betIVeen the stands IVas also accompanied by variations
in soil physical and chemical characteristics and topoqraphic
factors.
Ordination studies IVere also performed using detrended
correspondence analysis, reciprocal averaging and IVeightedaverages
ordination. The results from these studies confirmed
the findings from the classification by the two-way indicator
species analysis.
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Eritrea Ethiopia