Mineral composition in the ecosystems of fruit trees in Egypt 3-olea europaea L.

ABSTRACT

Orchards varied much greatly in their nutrient concentrations. Application of step-wise multiple regression model revealed that, electric conductivity, soil texture, pH, CaCO[3]concentration and organic matter [O.M] were the most important edaphic factors affecting nutrient concentration levels in leaves of O. europaea. The yield [Kg/tree] was strongly affected besides these factors by tree age. Application of PCA proved that, the distribution of orchards in the three dimensional plane varies along two gradients, [a] nutrient gradients in leaves and roots and [b] edaphic gradients of soil salinity, CaCo[3], pH and organic utter [O.M]