ISSN: 2084-3577

TMKARPISKI
PUBLISHER

Journal of Biology and Earth Sciences ORIGINAL ARTICLE

BIOLOGY

Vegetation analysis and species diversity in the desert ecosystem of coastal wadis of South Sinai, Egypt
Fawzy Mahmoud Salama1 , Monier Mohamed Abd El-Ghani 2, Salah Mohamed El-Naggar1 , Mohamed Meftah Aljarroushi 3
1Botany

Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt 3Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Muserata University, Libya
2Botany

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the floristic composition, biological spectrum, chorological affinities, and describes the vegetation inhabiting the main channel and the deltaic part of Wadi Kid as one of the principal coastal wadis in South Sinai. The life-form spectrum in the present study is characteristic of an arid desert region with the dominance of therophytes (30.43% of the total) and chamaephtyes (26.09%), followed by hemicryptophytes (26.09%), phanerophytes (1 4.49%), geophytes (1 .45%) and parasites (1 .45%). Phytogeographically, the Saharo-Arabian element forms the major component of the floristic structure. The investigation revealed that Wadi Kid is potential shelters of 5 vegetation groups. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) represented the distribution of the recognized groups along the first two axes. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) indicated that clay, coarse sand, electric conductivity, chlorides, magnesium and calcium were the main soil parameters which determined the distribution of vegetation in the study area.

Key words: Wadi Kid; Floristic analysis; Coastal wadis; Soil-vegetation relationships; Multivariate
analysis.

J Biol Earth Sci 201 3; 3(2): B21 4-B227

Corresponding author:

Fawzy Mahmoud Salama Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt E-mail: fawzy_salama201 [email protected]
Original Submission: 09 July 201 3; Revised Submission: 1 9 September 201 3; Accepted: 23 September 201 3 Copyright 201 3 Author(s). Journal of Biology and Earth Sciences 201 3 Tomasz M. Karpiski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

http://www.journals.tmkarpinski.com/index.php/jbes or http://jbes.strefa.pl e-mail: [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION
Southern Sinai is triangular mass of mountains, about 28400 km 2 [1 ] in surface area, of igneous and metamorphic rocks. This mass of mountains is intensively rugged and dissected by a complicated system of deep wadis, some of which reach a considerable length (e.g. Wadi Feiran, and Wadi Zaghar) and some are shorter, narrow and steeper, and represent tributaries of the main wadis (e.g. Wadi El-Arbaein) [1 , 2]. This roughness in geomorphology lead to differentiation of enormous number of microhabitats [3] and landforms [2] which resulted in relatively high diversity in ecosystems and flora. This area is intensively rugged and dissected by a complicated system of flash floods, but under normal circumstances most of the water is underground, occasionally surfacing to produce short sections of freely flowing permanent water. Sparse vegetation occurs everywhere, but the wet areas are particularly rich with plants and consequently with insects and other animals. The plant life in Sinai has proved a very interesting topic for many botanists and explorers over the years [4-6]. The Plant Red Data Book of Egypt shows that 1 42 species of trees and shrubs were already threatened by the early 1 990 [7, 8]. Wadi Kid is a main basin which drains to the Gulf of Aqaba [1 ]. It is a long wadi, located about 50 km north to Sharm El-Sheikh city, and extends for about 50 km, surrounded by different types of granitic and volcanic mountains. The width of the main wadi ranges between 50-1 00 m, and in some areas turned into vast plains. This wadi can be divided into two main parts, the upstream part and the downstream part. The upstream part is mainly gravel with surface cobbles. The downstream part of the wadi is covered mainly with rocks (cobbles and stones) with a coarse sand strips near the foot hills. The present study aims to investigate the floristic composition, biological spectrum, chorological affinities and describes the vegetation inhabiting the principal channel of Wadi Kid including its deltaic part using multivariate analyses technique.

and extends for about 50 km long with an elevation ranged between 1 7 and 636 m a.s.l. Wadi Kid is easily traversable, in most parts, by appropriately equipped vehicle. In some locations of rough rocky terrain, needing attention for its vegetation, were reached on foot. The study was carried out along two successive years 201 0 and 2011 . Forty georeferenced stands in the deltaic part and along the main trunk of the wadi were studied (Fig. 2). These stands studied were randomly chosen at locations where considerable vegetation cover was encountered. The Raunkiaer system [9] was used to classify the recorded species. The number of species within each life form was expressed as a percentage of the total number of species. Species richness (SR) within each separated vegetation group was calculated as the average number of species per stand. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index was calculated from the formula H=-Pi lnPi [1 0], where, H is Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pi

Fig. 1.

Location map of Wadi Kid.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Wadi Kid is the longest wadi after Wadi Feiran in South Sinai (Fig. 1 ). It is located between longitude (3409`& 3427`E) and latitude (2804`& 2821 `N),

Fig. 2.

Location of studied stands inside Wadi Kid.

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is the relative presence value of the ith species. Materials about local flora [11 -1 6] were consulted for taxonomic nomenclature. The phytogeographical range of species distribution was carried out according to Zohary [1 7] Abd El-Ghani [1 8] and Hassan [1 9]. Voucher specimens were deposited at the Herbarium of the Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University. Duplicate series of specimens were also deposited at the Herbarium of Cairo University. For each sampled stand, three soil samples were collected from profiles of 050 cm depth. These samples were then pooled together to form one composite sample, air-dried and thoroughly mixed. Textures were determined by sieving method to separate gravels, coarse sand, fine sand, silt and clay. Determination of electric conductivity and pH was determined in soil-water (1 :5) extracts. Calcium and magnesium were determined volumetrically by the versene titration method described by Johnson and Ulrich [20]. Sodium and potassium were determined by flame photometry according to Williams and Twine [21 ]. Estimation of chlorides was carried out by titration methods using 0.005N Silver Nitrate [22, 23]. Sulphates were determined according to Bardsley and Lancaster [24]. A floristic data matrix of 40 stands and 69 species was subjected for classification by cluster analysis of the computer program MVSP version 3.1 [25] using squared Euclidean distance dissimilarity matrix with minimum variance (also called Wards method) as agglomeration criterion [26]. The computer program CANOCO version 4.5 [27] was used for all ordination analyses whereas the computer program SPSS version 1 0.0 [28] was used for all the statistical treatments. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify the main gradients that influence species distribution. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was the appropriate ordination method to perform direct gradient analysis [27]. Due to high inflation factor of pH, it was excluded from analysis. Therefore, CCA was performed using 1 3 environmental variables: gravels, coarse sand, fine sand, silt, clay, electric conductivity (EC), total soluble salts (TSS), sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chlorides and sulphates. All the default settings were used for CCA, and a Monte Carlo permutation test (499 permutations [29] ) was used to test for significance of the eigenvalues of the first canonical axis.

RESULTS Floristic analysis

Altogether 69 species (20 annuals and 49 perennials) belonging to 57 genera in 33 families were recorded. The largest families were Asteraceae and Zygophyllaceae (8 and 7 species, respectively), Caryophyllaceae, Boraginaceae, Brassicaceae, and Fabaceae (4 species for each) and Geraniaceae, Resedaceae, Poaceae (3 species for each). They constituted most of the floristic structure in South Sinai Desert, whereas Asclepiadaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Cleomaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Polygonaceae were equally represented (2 species for each). Nineteen families were represented by only one species. The largest genera were Fagonia and Zygophyllum, 3 species for each (Table 1 ). Figure 3 showed the life forms of the recorded species according to Raunkiaer [9]. The 69 recorded species were represented in 6 different life forms. Therophytes (30.43%) constituted the largest number of species (21 species), followed by chamaephytes (26.09%), phanerophytes (1 4.49%), hemicryptophytes (26.09%), geophytes and parasites. Three of the recorded species were ubiquitous (have a wide ecological range of distribution). Schouwia purpurea, Zygophyllum simplex and Zygophyllum coccineum had the highest presence values (P=73%, 68% and 60%, respectively). On

Life forms spectrum of the recorded species in the study area. H=Hemicyptophytes, Ge=Geophytes, Ch=Chemaephytes, Th=Therophytes, Ph=Phanerophytes.
Fig. 3.

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Floristic composition, presence value, life forms and chorology of the recorded species in Wadi Kid in South Sinai, Egypt. P%, presence of values; Per, perennials; Ann, annuals; Ph, Phanerophytes; H, Hemicryptophyte; Ch, Chemaephytes; Th, Theophytes; G, Geophytes; P, Parasites; SA, Saharo-Arabian; SZ, Sudano-Zambezian; IT, Irano-Turanian; ES, EuroSiberian; M, Mediterranean.
Table 1.

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Table 1.

continued

the other hand, Schouwia purpurea, Zygophyllum simplex and Reseda pruinosa showed the highest presence estimates among annuals (P = 73%, 68% and 35%, respectively). Forty-nine species (71 .01 % of the total flora) were perennials, demonstrated a certain degree of constancy. The presence of Limonium pruinosum, Salsola imbricata subsp. imbricata, Nitraria retusa and Atriplex halimus refers to salinization.

chorotypes extending their distribution all over the Saharo-Arabian, Sudano-Zambezian, Irano-Turanian, Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean regions amounted to 47.83% of the recorded flora. However, the Saharo-Arabian chorotype (bi- and pluri-) constituted 27% and 1 6%, respectively. Thus it forms the major component of the floristic composition of this study.

Chorological affinities

Classification of vegetation

Chorological analysis of the surveyed flora (Fig. 4) revealed that 36 species (52.1 7% of the total flora) were monoregional native to SaharoArabian chorotype. Biregional and pluriregional

Application of classification using cluster analysis to the floristic data of the coastal wadis, yielded 5 vegetation groups (Fig. 5). Ten species were recorded with variable presence values in the 5 groups. It included one tree (Acacia tortilis),

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diversity index of 1 .070.98 (Table 2). Stands of this group inhabited soil rich in its electric conductivity, total soluble salts, chlorides, coarse sand, fine sand, silt, and other cations such as Na, K, Ca and Mg. Sporadic species (species recorded in one stand only) were represented by 24 species or about 73% of the recorded species of this group, amongst others, Acacia tortilis, Astragalus spinosus,
Blepharis edulis, Panicum turgidum, Diplotaxis harra, Teucrium polium and Zilla spinosa. Avicennia marina, Limonium pruinosum (P=27.3% for each), and Zygophyllum album (P=1 8.2%). Six species showed consistency to this group: Nitraria retusa, Avicennia marina, Limonium pruinosum, Zygophyllum album, Astragalus spinosus and Brassica tournefortii (Table 3). Schouwia purpurea group This group was the most diversified among the recognized groups. It comprised of 45 species recorded from 1 0 stands, with average species richness of 1 2.74.1 species stands-1 , and Shannon-Wiener diversity index of 2.50.3. It inhabited soil with the lowest salinity (electric conductivity and total soluble salts), and lowest levels of calcium contents (Table 2). Sporadic species comprised 21 species (or about 47% of the recorded species of this group) which included, amongst others, Calligonum polygonoides, Chrozo

Co-dominant

associated

species

included

Chorological analysis of the recorded species in the costal Wadi. For abbreviations, see Table 1 .
Fig. 4.

Group (B):

phora oblongifolia, Echinops spinosus, Hyoscyamus boveanus, Iphiona scabra, Solenostemma arghel and Zizyphus spinachristi (Table 3). Co-dominant

associated species that have presence values ranged from 70-60% were Acacia tortilis, Forss
Dendrogram showing cluster analysis of the studied 40 stands of the costal wadis, with the five vegetation groups (A-E).
Fig. 5.

kaolea tenacissima, Pulicaria undulata, Zilla spinosa, Aizoon canariense, Citrullus colocynthis, Fagonia arabica and Zygophyllum simplex.

Fagonia arabica, Schouwia purpurea, Zilla spinosa and Zygophyllum coccineum), and annuals (e.g., Zygophyllum simplex).

shrubs (e.g.,

Erodium oxyrhynchum, Capparis spinosa, Erodium pulverulentum, Fagonia bruguieri, Hyoscyamus boveanus, Picris cyanocarpa and Solenostemma arghel. Schouwia purpureaZygophyllum cocci neumZygophyllum simplex group

Consistent species to this group included

Nitraria Zygophyllum simplex

Group (A):

group It is the largest among the separated vegetation groups. It comprised of 33 species recorded from 11 stands, with the lowest species richness of 4.75.4 species stands-1 , and Shannon-Wiener

retusa- Salvadora

persica-

Group (C):

This was the least diversified (25 species) among the recognized vegetation groups, with an average species richness of 1 0.73.3 species stand -1 , and Shannon-wiener diversity index of 2.30.3 (Table 2). The 7 stands of this group

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Table 2.

Mean values, standard deviations (STD) and ANOVA values of the soil variables in the vegetation groups (A-E) of the coastal wadis. EC=Electric conductivity, TSS=Total soluble salts, CS=Coarse sand, FS=Fine sand, SR=Species richness and H'=Shannon-Wiener index. **= p < 0.01 , *= p < 0.05.

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Salama et al. Vegetation analysis and species diversity in the desert ecosystem of South Sinai, Egypt
Floristic composition in the vegetation groups of coastal wadis. Figures in bold are species with highest presence values.
Table 3.

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Table 3.

Continued.

inhabited soil with the highest clay content (higher than the total mean), high sodium and chloride contents, and lowest contents of gravel, coarse sand, fine sand and silt. Sporadic species included 1 0 species, amongst others, Bromus catharticus,
Cleome amblyocarpa, Echinops hussonii, Helio tropium digynum and Kickxia scoparia.

harmala, Fagonia schimperi, Gypsophila capillaris and Salsola imbricata subsp. imbricata.

Group (E): Forsskaolea tenacissimaIphiona scabra

Schouwia purpureaZygophyllum simplex

Co-dominant associated 57.1 %) included Fagonia

mollis, Stipagrostis plumosa, Tribulus pentandrus, Iphiona scabra, Pulicaria undulata and Zilla spinosa. Two species (Echinops hussonii and Heliotropium digynum)

species

(P=85.7-

showed consistency to this group (Table 3).

Group (D):
neum

group The 37 species in this group were recorded from 7 stands, with average species richness of 1 3.72.5 species stand -1 , and Shannon diversity index of 2.60.2. The stands of this group inhabited soil with lower content of sodium and chlorides (Table 2). Seventeen sporadic species (ca 46% of species in this group) were recorded which included amongst others, Aerva javanica, Cleome drose
rifolia, Fagonia schimperi, Iphiona mucronata, Pergularia tomentosa and Salsola imbricata subsp. imbricata.

Schouwia purpureaZygophyllum cocci

group The group size of this group was represented by 5 stands that included 43 species. The average species richness was the highest among the recognized groups with 21 .24.4 species stands-1 and Shannon-Wiener diversity index of 3.00.2 (Table 2). The stands of this group inhabited soil with the highest content of gravel, and lowest content of sodium, magnesium and chlorides. Sporadic species included 1 3 species, of which

Cucumis prophetarum, Heliotropium arbainense, Pergularia tomentosa, Salvadora persica and Silene linearis were included.

Co-dominant associated species with presence values of 80% included amongst others Aerva
javanica, Citrullus colocynthis, Pulicaria incisa, Panicum turgidum, Tribulus pentandrus and Zilla spinosa. One species ( Silene linearis) showed

consistency to this group (Table 3).

Stand ordination

Co-dominant associated species that have presence values ranged between 71 .4 and 57.1 % included Calligonum polygonoides, Fagonia mollis,

Stipagrostis plumosa, Citrullus colocynthis, Aspho delus tenuifolius and Ochradenus baccatus (Table

3). Four species showed a certain degree of consistency to this group, and included Peganum

Application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the vegetation data (Fig. 6) revealed the segregation of the 5 vegetation groups along PCA axis 1 (Eigenvalue 0.294) and PCA axis 2 (Eigenvalue 0.074). The cumulative percentage variance of species data of the first two PCA axes were 36.8%. Stands of group (A) separated along the negative side of PCA axis 1 , while those of group (E) separated along its positive end. In the

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The results of ordination for the four CCA axes, Interset correlation of the soil variables, together with eigenvalues and species environment correlation. For soil abbreviations and units see Table 2.
Table 4.

PCA diagram showing the distribution of the 40 stands of the coastal wadis within their vegetation groups.
Fig. 6.

meantime, stands of group (B) separated along the positive end of PCA axis 2, and those of group (C) separated along its negative end.

Soil-vegetation relationships

Significant differences in the examined soil variables within the separated vegetation groups were demonstrated in Table 2. Clay, calcium, magnesium, chlorides, electric conductivity, total soluble salts, potassium and sulphates showed clear significant differences between groups at p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively. The relationship between the vegetation and soil variables was studied using Canonical Corres-

pondence Analysis (CCA). Figure 7 showed the CCA ordination biplot with vegetation groups (A-E), and the examined soil variables. It can be noted that stands of group (A) were significantly correlated with calcium, potassium and coarse sand. On the other hand, the remaining vegetation groups (B-E) cannot be easily differentiated, and tend to clump together. The successive decrease of eigenvalues of the three CCA axes were (0.930, 0.895 and 0.224 for axes 1 , 2 and 3, respectively) that illustrated in Table 4, suggesting a wellstructured data set. The speciesenvironment correlations were higher for the first three axes, explaining 75.5% of the cumulative variance. These results suggested an association between vegetation and the measured soil parameters presented in the biplot. The interset correlations resulted from Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) of the examined soil variables were displayed in Table 4. CCA axis 1 was highly positively correlated with chlorides and highly negatively correlated with clay. So this axis can be interpreted as chlorides-clay gradient. CCA axis 2 was highly positively correlated with coarse sand and highly negatively with fine sand. Thus, this axis can be interpreted as coarse sand-fine sand gradient. A test for significance with an unrestricted Monte Carlo permutation test (499 permutation) for the eigenvalue of axis 1 found to be significant (P=0.05), indicating that the observed patterns did

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Correlation coefficients between soil factors and diversity indices. For soil variables abbreviations, see Table 2.
Table 5.

Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) biplot of axes 1 and 2 showing the distribution of the 40 stands, together with their vegetation groups and soil variables. For soil variables abbreviations, see Table 2.
Fig. 7.

not arise by chance. The results of species diversity (species richness and Shannon's-Wiener index) were illustrated in Table 5. It was clear that, both species richness and Shannon's index showed significant differences between the recognized vegetation groups. Species richness (SR) showed significant negative correlations with EC, TSS, CS, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl and SO 4. Shannon-Wiener diversity index showed significant negative correlation with EC, TSS, CS, silt, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl and SO 4, and positively correlated with clay (Table 5).

DISCUSSION
The importance of the study area from a phytogeographical point of view may be due to its position on the Sinai Peninsula, which is located in the intersection of the four phytogeographical regions: Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, SudanoZambezian and the Saharo-Arabian region. This may reflect the relatively rich floristic diversity of the Sinai Peninsula. Chorological analysis of the floristic data revealed that the Saharo-Arabian chorotype forms the major component of the floristic structure where it was represented by more than 50%. This is in accordance with the results obtained by Danin and Plitman [30] on the phytogeographical analysis of the flora of Israel and Sinai. The presence of the monoregional Saharo-Arabian chorotype in a higher

percentage than the inter-regional chorotypes (biand pluriregionals) is not in accordance with Zohary [31 ]. The Saharo-Arabian chorotype decreased northward and replaced by Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian chorotype [30, 31 ]. This may be attributed to the fact that plants of the SaharoArabian species are good indicators for desert environmental conditions, while Mediterranean species stand for more mesic environment. The absence of the endemic species in this study is remarkable. Wickens [33] and Boulos [34] mentioned that the Saharo-Arabian region is characterized by the presence of few endemic species and genera, and absence of endemic families. Most of the endemic species in Sinai is confined to the mountain region [35]. In the Sinai Peninsula, mangrove swamps are absent from the whole stretch of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Suez (as in the western coast). However, at the cap of the Sinai Peninsula where the Suez Gulf meets the Aqaba gulf at Ras Muhammed, there is a shallow and narrow lagoon extending from the Gulf of Suez landward. This lagoon provides a suitable site for the growth of mangal vegetation. Zaghloul [36] conducted a detailed study of Wadi Kid (South Sinai), who distinguished 3 main parts: the upstream, the main stream and the downstream; each have its specific community types that resembled the structure of the identified vegetation groups in this study. However,

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their records were devoid of Avicennia marina. Therefore, the record of this species in Wadi Kid (along the Red Sea coast) in this study can be considered a new site for the distribution range of this species in Egypt. Most of the identified vegetation groups have very much in common with that recorded in some wadis of the Eastern Desert [37-39]. Western Desert [40-42], along the eastern [43] and western Mediterranean region [44], in South Sinai region [45-47] and in northwestern Negev, Israel [48]. The members of each pair of groups are, in some cases, linked together by having one of the dominant species in common. Diversity is of theoretical interest because it can be related to stability, maturity, productivity, evolutionary time, predation pressure and spatial heterogeneity [49]. The present study reveals that stands of group (E) of the lowland channels of Wadi Kid (coastal wadis) that have the lowest salinity levels have the highest species richness (21 .2 4.4 species stands-1 ). This may explains the high contribution of annuals in this group. The highly salinized soil with deep fine sediments (group A) dominated by Nitraria retusa, Salvadora persica and Zygo phyllum simplex has the lowest species richness (4.7 5.4 species stands-1 ). These results are in line with those of Abd El-Ghani and Amer [50] in El-Qaa plain of South Sinai. In this study, both species diversity measures showed high significant positive correlation (0.91 3) to each other. Species richness (SR) showed significant negative correlations with EC, TSS, CS, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl and SO 4. Shannon-Wiener diversity index showed significant negative correlation with EC, TSS, CS, silt, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl and SO 4, and positively correlated with clay. Comparing the floristic compositions in 2 coastal wadis (Wadi Kid and El-Qaa plain) yielded 55 species in common, and 52.6% floristic similarity according to Srensen Coefficient. This relatively high similarity may be related to the comparable soil characters of both landforms. In Sinai, several studies have provided qualitative assessments of the distribution of plant species and associations in relation to physiographic factors in different areas of the peninsula (amongst others [4, 51 , 52]). In this study, soilvegetation relationships in the coastal wadis revealed that electric conductivity, total soluble salts, coarse sand, sodium, potassium calcium,

magnesium and chlorides were the most important soil factors along the first 2 axes of Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Whereas, gravel, coarse sand, fine sand, silt, clay, sodium and chlorides were the controlling soil variables along the first 2 axes of Canonical Correspondence Analysis. This is in accordance with the results in the present study and other relevant works such as those of El Hadidi [39], El Ghareeb and Shabana [45], Abd El-Ghani, and Amer [50] and Yair et al. [53]. According to Helmy et al. [54] who studied the distribution behavior of seven common shrubs and trees growing in southern Sinai (viz. Retama raetam, Acacia tortilis, Moringa peregrina, environmental factors, they also concluded that altitude, nature of soil surface, soil texture and salinity are the most important factors controlling the distribution of woody plant communities in southern Sinai. In the same direction, Mashaly [55] pointed out that moisture content, sand fraction, sodium cations, electric conductivity, and chloride contents were the most important soil factors controlling the distribution of halophytic species in South Sinai. While the contents of calcium carbonate, magnesium and calcium cations, total nitrogen, silt and clay fractions and pH were the most effective soil factors affecting the distribution of xerophytic species. These findings were also in agreement with the results obtained from this study.

Nitraria retusa, Crategus sinaica, Salvadora per sica, and Lycium shawii) in relation to physical

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are indebted to Prof. Dr. Taha Ramadan of the Botany Department, Assiut University for consultations in illustrations of the data Fig.s.

TRANSPARENCY DECLARATION
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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