EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Oases of North Africa

Date Palm Oasis, Sahara Desert Camp
Tunisia, North Africa

Explanation:  How could there be a more classical image of a desert oasis?  We are approaching a camp site in the northern Sahara Desert of Tunisia, North Africa.  Here, the desert is rocky and immensely dry ... except for the very bottom of occasional ravines where the local water table barely reaches the surface.  

This is the environment of date palms and associated other plants and wildlife.   One study of oasis ecosystems in north Algeria discovered a total of 53 species of birds from 29 families, occupying areas with palms, fruit trees, and cultivated crops.  Some 18 of these species are resident breeders, and others occur as seasonal migrants, making the oasis system important habitat for a wide avifauna (see Chiheb et al. 2021).  

However, oases can serve as attractive environments for non-native species.  For example, in oases in neighboring Morocco, another study (Taheri et al. 2021) reported some 5 species of invasive ants, along with 22 native species, but among 11 oases studied, only 4 had no invasive ants.  Apparently, the presence of invasive ants is related to available water and resource flow rates.  

Immensely harsh land for sustaining life!
Yes, in such conditions thrive Berber villages.

This small pocket of palms persists as another classic oasis,
here near the Berber village of Chenini, in Tunisia.
Some oases, such as this one, can consist of
only a few trees and shrubs.
   

But here lies a major life lesson, how cultural diversity can be sustained through wise and careful use of scarce biological and ecological resources.  

Another study (Tydecks et al. 2023) described this linkage as "biocultural diversity," using examples of Sahara Desert oases in Algeria as markers of cultural persistence.  The study related elements of biodiversity, such as species richness and functional diversity, to elements of cultural diversity, such as economic, artistic, and linguistic diversity.  

And in harsh desert oasis settings, the major drivers influencing, and perhaps threatening, all elements include isolation, small areal coverage, harsh climate and environment, and globalization and external human impacts.  

Information:
    Chiheb, L., B. Ettayib, N. Yassine, and H. Ramzi.  2021.  Spatio-temporal variation patterns of bird community in the oasis ecosystem of the north of Algerian Sahara.  Journal of Bioresource Management 8(1): https://doi.org/10.35691/JBM.1202.0161.
    Taheri, A., M. Elmahroussi, J.-L. Reyes- López, N. Bennas, and J.C. Brito. 2021. Ants invading deserts: Non-native species in arid Moroccan oases. Journal of Arid Environments 184:104122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2020.104122.
    Tydecks, L., J. A. Hernández-Agüero, K. Böhning-Gaese, V. Bremerich, J. M. Jeschke, B. Schütt, C. Zarfl, and K. Tockner. 2023. Oases in the Sahara Desert–Linking biological and cultural diversity. PLoS One 18(8):e0290304. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290304.