Post-fire natural regeneration of fire-prone Mediterranean plant communities in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar, Libya

Fire is a natural disturbance factor that affects terrestrial vegetation in the Mediterranean basin. Wildfires are frequent in Wadi Murqus, one of the main valleys in The Green Mountain (Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar) of Cyrenaica, Libya. The present work was conducted to examine the post-fire vegetation cover of an area affected by wildfire and to study the regeneration mode of the main native plant species at the early post-fire stages. The objectives were: (1) to investigate the post-fire resprouting ability of five species, Arbutus pavarii, Olea europaea, Phillyrea angustifolia, Pistacia lentiscus, and Juniperus phoenicea; and (2) to study the effect of fire on seed germination and seedling emergence of 10 native seeding species. High resprouting ability (80-100%) was recorded for all the examined species in the first spring after fire, except for J. phoenicea that failed to resprout. The highest emergence rates for seeding species were reported for Pinus halepensis (49.5% of the total emerged seedlings), followed by Cistaceae (19%) and Lamiaceae (18%). No emerging seedlings were recorded for J. phoenicea, O. europaea, and Ceratonia siliqua. Based on the findings of this study, a change in the vegetation composition early after fire is suggested, as post-fire conditions enhanced the recruitment of non-dominant seeders such as P. halepensis and species of two families, Cistaceae and Lamiaceae. The dominant species of the valley responded differently to fire; A. pavarii and P. lentiscus managed to maintain their pre-fire populations, whereas J. phoenicea and C. siliqua failed to reappear in the early post-fire community.