Improving Revegetation of Degraded Dryland Using Zeolitic Tuff and Saltbush Species
Summary
Drought is considered one of the major problems that renders the success of rehabilitation activities in arid and semi rangeland. Promoting survival and growth, using zeolitic tuff added to planting holes is suggested as possible solution. An experiment was conducted using a factorial design. Two shrub species (Atriplex halimus L., Atriplex nummularia Lindl.) were transplanted into holes prepared with three levels of tuff treatments (mulching, mixing and control) under rainfed condition. The result showed no significant effect of tuff on seedling survival percentage, when mixing tuff with plantation soil or adding tuff as mulch. Also, the two species showed similar survival percentages over two measured dates. However, mixing tuff with soil during hole preparation significantly enhanced seedling heights. The Australian Atriplex (Atriplex nummularia) species significantly grew higher than the Mediterranean Atriplex halimus. Also, results revealed insignificant effect of tuff treatments (mixing, mulch and control) on recorded species richness. But, the Australian Atriplex species significantly harbors more diverse species than the local Atriplex. The study concluded using zeolitic tuff had the potential to enhance seedling growth, thus improving the success of rangeland rehabilitation in dry areas.
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