The extreme west of Algeria is today, like the arid and semi-arid Mediterranean areas of North Africa, the seat of a negative and continuous ecological imbalance, due to especially over-exploitation of their natural resources.This degradation takes place in particular as a huge loss of edaphic capital, linked to an uncontrollable erosion which is accompanied by the deterioration of the biological capital by the disappearance of the most significant species on the one hand, and the infiltration of others less popular and / or more xerophilic species on the other hand.The Invasion of steppe species such as Artemisia herba-alba and Noaea mucronata (recovery more than 90%) remains the essential character of resemblance to the steppe of the highlands of the Oranian southwestern..In the context of the soil survey, we have tried to clarify the state of the soil variables in order to know the requirements and tolerances of certain steppic species and prey-species : Artemisia herba-alba, Noea mucronata. , Atriplex halimus, Pistacia atlantica with respect to each measured factor such as soil moisture, grain size, pH, salinity, total limestone and organic matter.The majority of the samples represent a balanced sandy-loam texture that is very sensitive to the soil Crusting.The moisture content is between 4 and 12%. This reflects the degree of edaphic drought..The limestone contents generally reach 18.82 to 36.82% or even 44% samples in the Pistacia subsoil sample with a sandy-loamy texture. This sandy texture of this sample is related to the abundance of carbonates. These last contribute to the increase of the pH.The edaphic analysis of each species has shown us that our results are close to steppe soils. Thus, it appears that this environment is close to the arid steppes in the process of desertification..Despite the intensity of degradation, edaphic attributes in the worst case, have not reached the levels observed in a desert and rehabilitation remains possible.

Degradation, Arid / semi-arid, Spectra edaphic, Steppisation

sciences soil

Presentation: poster