Article

The authors aimed to highlight the combined effects of fire, grazing and reafforestation on the vegetation of a coastal cork oak forest located in the north-eastern of Algeria. The results show that fire and grazing are the main factors of disturbance in this cork oak forest even fire seems to stimulate the very good and fast recolonization by shrubby species of the maquis such as Cistus and Calicotome. Intensive bovine grazing characterizes the high ligneous formations with clear or absent underlayer on weak slopes while the plantations with Eucalyptus sp.or with Pinus pinaster seem to favour the soil erosion as testifiy by an increase of the sand’s rates in the upper soil’s layers. Moreover, the reafforestation would disturb the re-establishment of the original vegetation especially the shrubby species under pines and Eucalyptus although the high percentage of regenerations of Quercus suber out of the plantations testifie to the high potentialities in the studied area allowing the return of the oaks.