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, <i>Arbutus pavarii</i>, <i>Olea europaea</i>, <i>Phillyrea angustifolia</i>, <i>Pistacia lentiscus,</i> and <i>Juniperus phoenicea</i>; 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 <i>J. phoenicea</i> that failed to resprout. The highest emergence rates for seeding species were reported for <i>Pinus halepensis</i> (49.5% of the total emerged seedlings), followed by Cistaceae (19%) and Lamiaceae (18%). No emerging seedlings were recorded for <i>J. phoenicea</i>, <i>O. europaea</i>, and <i>Ceratonia siliqua</i>. 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 <i>P. halepensis</i> and species of two families, Cistaceae and Lamiaceae. The dominant species of the valley responded differently to fire; <i>A. pavarii</i> and <i>P. lentiscus</i> managed to maintain their pre-fire populations, whereas <i>J. phoenicea</i> and <i>C. siliqua</i> failed to reappear in the early post-fire community.