The geological and paleoenvironmental setting and the vertebrate taxonomy of the fossiliferous, Cenomanian-age deltaic sediments in eastern Morocco, generally referred to as the “Kem Kem beds”, are reviewed. These strata are recognized here as the Kem Kem Group, which is composed of the lower Gara Sbaa and upper Douira formations. Both formations have yielded a similar fossil vertebrate assemblage of predominantly isolated elements pertaining to cartilaginous and bony fishes, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs, as well as invertebrate, plant, and trace fossils. These fossils, now in collections around the world, are reviewed and tabulated. The Kem Kem vertebrate fauna is biased toward large-bodied carnivores including at least four large-bodied non-avian theropods (an abelisaurid, Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Deltadromeus), several large-bodied pterosaurs, and several large crocodyliforms. No comparable modern terrestrial ecosystem exists with similar bias toward large-bodied carnivores. The Kem Kem vertebrate assemblage, currently the best documented association just prior to the onset of the Cenomanian-Turonian marine transgression, captures the taxonomic diversity of a widespread northern African fauna better than any other contemporary assemblage from elsewhere in Africa.

The study of water resources at watershed scale is widely adopted as approach to manage, assess and simulate these important natural resources. The development of remote sensing and GIS techniques has allowed the use of spatially and physically based hydrologic models to simulate as simply and realistically as possible the functioning of watershed systems. Indeed, the major constraint that has hindered the expansion use of these tools was the unavailability or scarcity of data especially in the developing countries. In this context, the objective of this study is to model the hydrology in the Bouregreg basin, located at the north-central of Morocco, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in order to understand and determine the different watershed hydrological processes. Thus, it aims to simulate the stream flow, establish the water balance and estimate the monthly volume inflow to SMBA dam situated at the basin outlet. The ArcSWAT interface implemented in the ArcGIS software was used to delineate the basin and its sub-components, combine the data layers and edit the model database. The model parameters were analyzed, ranked and adjusted for hydrologic modeling purposes using daily temporal data series. They were calibrated using an auto-calibration method based on a Shuffled Complex Evolution Algorithm from 1989 to 1997 and validated from 1998 to 2005. Based on statistical indicators, the evaluation indicates that SWAT model had a good performance for both calibration and validation periods in Bouregreg Watershed. In fact, the model showed a good correlation between the observed and simulated monthly average river discharge with R² and Nash coefficient of about 0.8. The water balance components were correctly estimated and the SMBA dam inflow was successfully reproduced with R² of 0.9. These results revealed that if properly calibrated, SWAT model can be used efficiently in semi-arid regions to support water management policies.

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Late Viséan brachiopods from the eastern Tafilalt (Morocco), and more precisely from the area comprised between the Jebel Begaa to the southwest, and Gara El Itima to the northeast (close to the Algerian border), are described systematically for the first time. Despite the limited material available, 18 species belonging to 17 genera have been recognized within the limestone beds of the Merdani and Zrigat formations, in which the productides (Productidina) and spiriferides are the most diverse. Representatives of the subfamily Gigantoproductidinae, which are close, if not conspecific, to those present in contemporaneous rocks of the nearby Béchar Basin (Algeria), occur in the late Viséan Zrigat Formation. Additional research based on more abundant material is necessary to investigate thoroughly the relationships existing between the Béchar Basin and the Tafilalt, which may have been part of the former during the Carboniferous.

Peri-urban forests are subject to different dynamics due to several factors. Nfifikh forest is a man-made space, located in suburban of Mohammedia City, belonging to Casablanca, Settat Region, and geographically between Casablanca, the economic and business Capital of Morocco and Rabat, the national political capital. Over the past three decades, it has experienced several significant degradations. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the deforestation within the study area using a forest cover change detection of various vegetation indices and subpixel classification to pick out high density plots with Landsat images TM, ETM + and OLI. Remote sensing is used to highlight the changes caused through Space-Time. This monitoring might help managers to generate forest management plans and to moderate the speed of deforestation and degradation. The results show a significant change in vegetation cover detected between 1987 and 2015. The Density increased in 2001 while it decreased considerably in 2015.