veg: Mafragh, Algeria vegetation data

In phytomosaic/ecole: ecole: School of Ecology Package

Description

This data set gives information about spatial coordinates, species, environment, traits, and phylogeny.

Usage

veg

Format

A list containing:
- xy 97 observations of 2 spatial coordinates,
- spe 97 observations of 56 plant species,
- env 347 observations of 11 soil enviro variables,
- tra 12 traits for 56 plant species,
- phy phylogeny for 56 plant species.

Details

### Study area description

The Mafragh plain is in El Tarf Province of far northeast Algeria (36.84704 N, 7.9450 E). According to documentation in R package 'ade4':

"This marshy coastal plain is a geomorphological feature, east of Port of Annaba, limited to the north by the Mediterranean Sea and a dune cordon, to the south by clay-sandstone Numidian massifs, to the west by a wadi and to East by an irrigated perimeter. It covers 15,000 ha of which 10,000 form the area of study."

Potential human pressures include grazing, irrigation and salination, plowing, and housing development. Its Köppen climate type is "Csa: Hot-summer Mediterranean climate".

### History of the Mafragh dataset

The data originate from the field studies of Prof. Gérard de Bélair of Annaba in northeast Algeria. Born in France, de Bélair became a missionary priest in 1969 shortly after Algeria's independence, then an agronomist during the Agrarian Revolution, then a botanist, then professor, then conservationist (according to his [lay](http://gdebelair.com/itineraire.html) and [clergy](https://www.visages-diocese-autun.fr/visage/de-belair-gerard/) accounts). As of 2021, he continues to actively publish on the vegetation of northern Algeria.

We should recognize the colonialist legacies that brought us here. France controlled Algeria from 1830 until its independence in 1962. Prior to that, Algeria was occupied by Ottoman Turks, Spaniards, Arab Muslims, Berber/Amazigh, Romans, Phoenicians, and prehistoric occupants dating to at least 1.8 million years ago. We may speculate that the region's vegetation and cultural histories have been closely intertwined.

The data were included in early versions of the 'ade4' software (Dray and Dufour 2007) which itself has its roots at Université Lyon 1, France. The present data are lightly modified from Appendix S4 of Pavoine et al. (2011), who also added a phylogeny.

Source

Lightly modified from Pavoine et al. (2011), but the dataset has its origins in the works of de Bélair (1981; 1987; 1991), and later included in R package 'ade4' (Dray and Dufour 2007).

References

de Bélair, G. 1981. Biogéographie et aménagement de la Plaine de la Mafragh (Annaba - Algérie) *Biogeography and development of the Mafragh Plain (Annaba, Algeria)*. Dissertation, Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier. http://www.sudoc.fr/00871262X

de Bélair, G. 1990. Structure, fonctionnement et perspectives de gestion de quatre écocomplexes lacustres et marécageux (El Kala, Est-Algérien) *Structure, function and management perspectives of four lake and marsh eco-complexes (El Kala, East Algeria)*. Dissertation, Université des sciences et techniques de Montpellier 2. http://www.sudoc.fr/007729197

de Bélair, G. and M. Bencheikh-Lehocine. 1987. Composition et déterminisme de la végétation d'une plaine côtière marécageuse: La Mafragh (Annaba, Algérie) *Composition and determinism of the vegetation of a marshy coastal plain: La Mafragh (Annaba, Algeria)*. Bulletin d'Ecologie, 18(4): 393–407.

Dray, S. and A. Dufour. 2007. The 'ade4' package: implementing the duality diagram for ecologists. Journal of Statistical Software 22(4): 1-20. [doi:10.18637/jss.v022.i04](https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v022.i04)

Pavoine, S., Vela, E., Gachet, S., de Bélair, G. and Bonsall, M. B. 2011. Linking patterns in phylogeny, traits, abiotic variables and space: a novel approach to linking environmental filtering and plant community assembly. Journal of Ecology 99: 165–175. [doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01743.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01743.x)

See Also

mafragh in R package ade4.

Examples

data(veg)
xy  <- veg$xy    # spatial
spe <- veg$spe   # species
env <- veg$env   # environment
tra <- veg$tra   # traits
phy <- veg$phy   # phylogeny

phytomosaic/ecole documentation built on Jan. 2, 2022, 11:24 p.m.