This region is characterized by the availability of a sea of groundwater that extends over large areas between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This water has been exploited by drilling wells and planting large areas with field crops that are tolerant to the salinity of that water. There are also significant projects to grow these areas with oases of palm trees and economic fruit trees, and this has been rationalized. Consumption of well water for irrigation through the use of economical irrigation methods such as sprinklers and drip irrigation to suit the nature of the sandy soil that does not retain water for long periods.
The most prominent plans and strategies that must be followed to achieve a sustainable environment and address the decline of natural vegetation.
A joint, thoughtful plan should be clarified in coordination with all relevant authorities in the governorate and relevant ministries in the state, which includes initiating an increase in agricultural projects for palm oases and field crops in the desert areas or the Western Plateau, provided that the oases and cultivated lands are distributed over long distances between them to enclose between them large unexploited areas arranged in alternating order in a checkerboard pattern to form an environment suitable for the growth of natural wild plants. In other words, large areas are allocated as natural reserves surrounded by lands farmed with economic trees, especially palm trees, and salt-tolerant field crops. Since farmed lands surround these unexploited areas or reserves, this contributes to the flourishing growth of natural wild plants throughout the months of the year, and their growth is not limited to after the rainy season. This is due to several reasons, the most important of which is:
1- Dividing lands in the desert or the Western Plateau in a checkerboard manner, represented by the exchange of farmed lands and oases with adjacent unfarmed areas (natural reserves), will contribute to surrounding a large number of these natural reserves with farmed lands and avoid sweeping away the sandy soil and thus sweep away the plants.
2- The availability of a water source in the farmed lands and oases surrounding the reserves will cause the edges of those reserves adjacent to the borders of the cultivated lands to be moistened, thus indirectly providing a source of water for wild plants. This leads to prolonging the growing seasons of wild plants throughout the year, at least at the edges of those lands after they were. It is limited to rainy seasons only. The availability of moisture also increases plant diversity and spread, as well as the dominance of certain species over others, depending on the nature of the soil.
3- After several seasons of indirect water availability in the reserves as a result of their surrounding the wet soils of the confiscated lands and neighboring oases and providing buffers for erosion factors, this will be an incentive for the flourishing of many perennial wild plants, such as wild cedar, tamarisk trees to form essential forests. as this forms a shade for smaller wild plants that are not tolerant of heat and sunlight, meaning an increase in plant biodiversity and thus animals (Sahib &Algaraawi,2024).
4- The flourishing growth of annual wild plants contributes to increasing the organic materials of the soil through the decomposition of those plants after the end of their growing season, as the soil is characterized by its lack of these materials. This will change the texture of the sandy soil, increase its cohesion, reduce the interspaces between its particles, and provide it with important elements and nutrients for wild plants, and thus Retaining or capturing the largest amount of water and humidity.
Papaver glaucum Brassica nigra
Teucrium oliverianum ( Alhandhal ) Citrullus colocynthis
A
B
(A –B )communities of (Al-Ramth) Haloxylon salicornisum , (Al-Aqul) Alhagi , (Al-Hammat) Moltkiopsis ciliata, – (Hamas) Zygophyllum coccineum (Al-Jabajb) Cornulaca monacantha.
(Sider berri )Ziziphus nummularia
A diagram showing how to create natural reserves surrounded by oases and farmed lands.
References
– Taher H.S., Algaraawi,N.I. and AlArdawi,K.G. Survey study to four families of Dicotyledon in Ain Al-tamur district.. Samarra J. Pure Appl. Sci., 2022; 4 (4): 109-122.
– Al-Garaawi,N.I. Hamid,B.A.. A Survey Study of Wild Plants in AL Al Najaf Desert .International Journal of Aquatic Science. Vol 14, Issue 01, 2023.
– Sahib, H. A., & AlGaraawi, N. I. (2024). A survey study of the plants of Al Hur District in the Holy City of Karbala. International Journal of Health Sciences, 8(S1), 612–637. Retrieved fromhttps://sciencescholar.us/journal/index.php/ijhs/article/view/14871.
