Catabolic profiles of cultivable microbial communities in forest soils of western Algeria along a latitudinal gradient

Abstract

In Algeria, the soil degradation, more particularly the one related to the biological properties in the surface layers, is a major problem to the ecological balance and the development of forest massive. This phenomenon is considered to be the most important factor limiting the growth and productivity of forest plants in arid and semi-arid zones that can go as far as to almost sterilization of these soils. In this research, it is proposed to undertake the study on catabolic profiles of cultivable microbial communities of forest soils in western Algeria along a latitudinal gradient in some sampled surface horizons of the three zones, namely Tlemcen, Saida and Naama. Like most of soils in semiarid and arid zones, they are soils with low content in organic matter and in clay, and most often the sandy to the sand-like texture.

Dynamics of chemical and microbial properties of Algerian forest soils: Influence of natural and anthropogenic factors (Northwest of Tlemcen)

“…In semi-arid regions of Western Algeria, many scientific studies have been conducted on post-degradation dynamics of forest ecosystems and the correlation between degradation factors and vegetation. However, these studies barely analyse the impact of these factors on soil dynamics, especially chemical and microbial properties, and resilience following degradation (Borsali et al, 2017;Zouidi et al, 2018, Zouidi et al, 2019a.…”