Relationship between species composition and growth environment in the arid zone of southwest Morocco
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(2020) 5:44
ORIGINAL PAPER
Relationship between species composition and growth environment in the arid zone of southwest Morocco Kiyokazu Kawada1 · Charradi Youssef2 · Mohamed El Fadili2 · Mohammed Yessef2 · Yoshiharu Fujii3 · Hiroko Isoda1 Received: 30 November 2019 / Accepted: 20 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Wild plants growing in arid environments are attracting attention as they are a new pool of resources. However, there is a concern that the rate of desertification will increase due to excessive use of plant resources in arid environments. The aim of this study was to show the distribution of wild plants and examine the management and utilization of plant resources in southwest Morocco. The intention is to use the results of this study to devise a plant resource use plan that considers regional characteristics. According to the results, the plant species Argania spinosa and Artemisia herba-alba dominate in southwest Morocco, with one of these species dominating at low elevations and the other dominating at high elevations (above approximately 1000 m.a.s.l.). Since these plants are the dominant species in the region, the risk of losing these species due to resource utilization is relatively low. On the other hand, other plant species in the region are much less abundant, so it is important to consider the conservation—including the sustainability—of those species if they are to be used as resources. Keywords Plant resources · Species composition · Argania spinosa · Artemisia herba-alba · Distribution · Community analysis
Introduction Secondary metabolites of plants are utilized as natural functional ingredients in health foods and cosmetics. Wild plants growing in dry environments are expected to contain substances with various useful functional properties. For example, extracts of Artemisia herba-alba are known to have antimicrobial and antioxidant activities (Mighri et al. 2010), whereas Argania spinosa has a melanin-suppressive effect (Villareal et al. 2013). While A. spinosa has attracted considerable attention from researchers because of its high Communicated by Armando da Costa Duarte, Chief Editor. This paper was selected from the Tunisia-Japan Symposium on Science, Society and Technology (TJASSST 2019), Sousse, Tunisia. * Kiyokazu Kawada [email protected] 1
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305‑8572, Japan
2
IAV Hassan II, 10112 Rabat, Morocco
3
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183‑8509, Japan
commercial value, the other wild plant species in arid and semiarid regions must also be studied if we are to conserve the ecosystems in these regions. A. spinosa is known to be distributed on the south side of the Atlas Mountains. The Atlas Mountains are topographical factors that greatly influence the Moroccan climate. The southern side of the Atlas Mountains has an arid/semiarid climate, and contains endemic species that are adapted to this environment. Further south is the Sahara Desert, which is even more arid, and
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