Plant Species Diversity at the Junction of Two Desert Biogeographic Zones

An examination was made of the patterns of plant species composition at the junction of the Irano-Turanian (steppe vegetation) and Saharo-Arabian (true desert) biogeographic zones in the Negev desert of Israel We measured plant species diversity along a north-south aridity gradient across these two...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biodiversity letters 1993-11, Vol.1 (6), p.172-185
Main Authors: Ward, David, Olsvig-Whittaker, Linda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
Annuals
Biodiversity Research
Cirques
Deserts
Plants
Rain
Species
Species diversity
Vegetation
Wadis
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:An examination was made of the patterns of plant species composition at the junction of the Irano-Turanian (steppe vegetation) and Saharo-Arabian (true desert) biogeographic zones in the Negev desert of Israel We measured plant species diversity along a north-south aridity gradient across these two zones, placing particular emphasis on the effects of a large erosion cirque at the boundary of these two zones on plant species composition patterns We found that the erosion cirque acts as a significant barrier to plant dispersal between these zones and that there is a disjunction between plant communities north and south of the cirque Plant species richness and the percentage of annual species increased linearly with increasing altitude and latitude, while dominance showed the reverse trend.
ISSN:0967-9952
DOI:10.2307/2999742