On the ecology of the desert vegetation in Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait is a desert, with hot dry summers and cool, comparatively rainy winters. The meagre annual rainfall (115 mm) allows a poor open steppe or scrub of undershrubs, perennial herbs and spring ephemerals. Three major communities are recognised by their dominant macrophytes: Cyperus conglomeratus, Rhanterium epapposum and Hammada salicornica. The vegetation was sampled quantitatively to provide estimates of cover abundance, sociability and frequency. Surface soils were analysed. The three communities show little difference in stature or total coverage, but greater difference in spectrum: the community of Cyperus has the narrowest and that of Hammada the widest spectrum. Soils are generally sandy and slightly alkaline. The most obvious differences are in organic matter content (high in Cyperus, low in Hammada) and total soluble salts (high in Rhanterium and Hammada, low in Cyperus). Other edaphic factors should be sought, and autecological investigations carried out, in order to understand the factors underlying the relative distribution of the three communities. The results of the present work are reviewed in the light of previous studies in eastern and central Arabia and southern Iraq.