Habitat as the primary factor
Influencing the vegetation
Of Israel
Plant Ecology conferenceTel-Hay, Feb 2016
Nir HerrForest depatmentNorthern region
KKl-JNF
• Is the recent vegetation truly the
• Or, the human disturbances contributed to a vegetation
The key questions:
Natural vegetation
"Semi natural"
• How much the recent natural vegetation represents the habitat
conditions?
• How much the human disturbances (agriculture, fire, grazing) are long
term?
• What else causes the change in vegetation?
• What are the factors that create different vegetation types and
biodiversity?
goals• Understanding the causes for the locations of the vegetation types
• Finding systematic order in the distribution of the vegetation types
• Understanding the effects of the natural habitat Vs. human
influences on vegetation
תנאי בית הגידול
Israel vegetation
cutt
ing
Gra
zin
g
Habitat conditions
• Revealing vegetation
landscape pattern in
Israel
Human influences Natural and Man-made fires
Local fires improve landscape variety
Heavy rain after fire (on un-vegetated soil)might cause erosionThis might increase disturbance severity
Are fires a long term disturbance?How long this patchiness will remain?Are there disturbances patches that will never recover?
Human influences Grazing
Example: In medium to heavy grazing regime the the Phillyrea is depressedBut mature Quercuscalliprinos could withstand the pressure and prosper
Heavy grazing could also depressQ. calliprinos
Goats and Phillyrea latifolia in Har Ahim
In YodfatIn Ahihud
Human influencesForest use and abuse: clear-cuts, uphill agriculture
In Horshan hills
In Alonim- Shefar’am hills
In Alon Hagalil
Zikhron Yaacov
Bat Shlomo orchards
Fields are connected to big areas instead the natural vegetation
Settlementshad eshtablished
Settlements and infrastructure are excluded from the ecosystem. Will disturbances persist after human use abandonment? Even Centuries later?
Qu
erc
us
ith
abu
ren
sis
Olive
Sarc
op
ote
riu
msp
inis
um
3500-
525-
1675-
775+
1750+
BC
AD
Canaanite period
Early Israerli
Israeli period
Persian period
Helenistic period
Roman period
ברונזה מאוחרת
Byzantine period
Arabian period
Crusades
Mamluk period
Ottoman period
British mandateState of Israel
Stormy, cold, and rainy
Hot and dryCold and rainy
Hot and dry
Cold and rainy
Hot and dry
Cold and rainy
Hot and dry
Cold and rainy (include the little ice age)
Hot and dry
Human history Climate conditions
Long and short term human and climate influence on vegation
Pollen after Baruch, 1994Climate after Issar, 2001 and others
Pollen abundance in cores
Pis
taci
a
Regrowing and succesion
Regrowing in various situationsGrowing rates and competitionBy Koniak and Noy-Meir (2009); Bar-Massada et al, 2006
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
year
%C
ov
er
herb
dwarf
med
high
tree
Post tree felling (without burning and grazing)
Post tree felling, cattle grazing, and fire every 20 years
Post tree felling,moderate cattle and goats grazing
The area comes to steady-state with slow continue of tree growing
P. Lentiscus and Ramnus
Moreover, without disturbance
Maquis can recover in 25 years
Rabinovitz-Vin, 1986; Broyde et al, 1996; Herr, 2008
How long does it take to overcome tree felling, fires and grazing?
5
4
3
2
1
m
Degradation and regrowing of maquis and its contents
Regrowing (and succession)How long is the fire influence
1
25
4
3
2
1
m
5
4
3
2
1
m
5
4
3
2
1'מ
Regrowing (and succession)
Degradation and regrowing of maquis and its contents
How long is the fire influence
3
5
4
3
2
1
m
4
5
Arbutus andrachne
Phillyrea latifoliaPistacia palestina
Regrowing (and succession)
Quercuscalliprinos
regrow from the
root neck
But also from the buds, like
Q. ithaburensis
After fire
Regrowing (and succession)
In Har Ahim
There is a stage that the upper branch became higher than the cow or goat head and can growing up
Young trees of Q. ithaburensis continue grow
slowly under grazing
In Alona region
Phillirea
Q. calliprinos
In continues grazing
צ
13
0
2
65
4Section No. 2
Section no. 2
Stratigraphic layers (20 m each)
westDalia river
023
1
5
4
6
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
Horshan Mt. and its surroundingsVegetation types and geological sections
Bat Shlomo
יערות נטועים
1944
מחצבת שפיה
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
Section no. 1Landscape mosaic and systematic order of vegetation
The geologic layers are perpendicular to the topography. So, there is gradually changing along the section, and it causes gradually changing of the vegetation types
Hei
ght
abo
ve s
ea le
vel
Pachiness and systematic order of vegetation
Maquis and bata near Lebanon border (Bar’am-Dovev region)
The maquis cover matches the geological formations, also north of the border. Once the grazing pressure will be removed – the maquis will rise
Dovev
Bar’am
DovevMaquis
Bata
Q. Calliprinos maquis
0
-1.0-
- 2.0 -
- 3.0 -
- 4.0 -
- 5.0 -
Q. Ithaburensispark forest
Depth
Bata and herbaceous
Q. Calliprinosmaquis
On karsticdolomit of Judea grup
in the mauntain
ridge
On eocene chalk and limestone
Habitats of oaks forest and maquis
chalklimestone
Habitats - The primary reson vegetation formations succeeds in its places
Q. Calliprinos on chalk. It roots penetrated joints in the rock
Q. Calliprinos on carsticpocket in dolomite in the main ridge
HABITATS
Q. Ithaburensis on soil pockets in chalk coverd by Nari
In Alon Hagalil
In Timrat slope
Near Shefer
Limestone (Timrat formation)
שיחי קידה ואשחר
אזוב וגעדה
כתלה וזקנן
קיפודן ועירית
שברקוקיפודן
י"אשחר א
אזוב ווכלנית
אלון התבור
נארי. 1רנדזינה ושיחים
אזוב וכתלה
נארי. 3ורנדזינה
חומה
רנדזינה . 2חומה
משטחי. 4נארי
טרה רוסה. 5עמוקה
אבן גיר. 6וטרה רוסה
נארי על. 7קרטון חוארי
קרטון חוארי. 8shrubsורנדזינה בהירה
י"אשחר אקידה שעירה
Dwarf shrub
כתלה חריפהאזוב מצוי
Perennial herbaceous
זקנןקיפודןעירית גדולה
שעיר
כלנית מצויה
מקרא
ע לס
המ
ם מי
ת עתנו
עק
רק
הל
אבי
בוק
הנ
Hard rock and too little soil pockets dose not alow growing of treesThe herbaceous grows in the drier habitat
Habitats of trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs and herbaceous
And when the conditions are not suitable for trees…
Sarcopoterium rules in the dry border belt
The roots in alluvium above eocene chalk
And about Sarcopotrium spinosomIs it part of the meditrenan ecosystem
or just penetrate as stage of the succesion
And in the center of the mediteranean region in same water regime
In LahavimIn Rahat
Har Ahim
Quercus acron sawing in Sarcopoterium area. Sprout grew in few places but did not survive
מיעוטם
. שורדים
sarcopoterium rules as bata on Senon chalk in Ein Zeitim,750 mm of pecipitation without meaningful grazing
Succession occur just in specific habitats
• HABITAT is the primary factor influencing species and vegetation types
• Fire, Grazing, Tree felling and Succession promote short term patchiness
• Ecosystems resilience allow rehabilitation of human disturbances. About
1,000 years for a long lasting disturbance and around few decades for a
short period disturbance.
• Climate changes along the history effect vegetation, as much as human
disturbances
• Israel’s vegetation is in a dynamic steady state based on the HABITATS
spread
Summary and conclusions