Population Structure and Threats to Sustainable Management of Woody Plant Species in a Semi-Arid Agro-Ecosystem in Nigeria
Journal Title: Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) - Year 2016, Vol 8, Issue 2
Abstract
This study was conducted to assess population structure and threat to the sustainable management of woody species in the various ago-ecosystems in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area (LGA) Katsina State, Nigeria. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used to collect data from 21 randomly demarcated 100m × 100m sample plots. All woody plant species found in the sample plots with stem diameter >2 cm at 20cm above ground, were recorded. Population structure was summarized by diameter classes. For the identification of threats, field and questionnaire surveys were used. A total of 50 questionnaires were distributed at ten questionnaires per ward in five out of the 11 wards in the LGA. The highest numbers (350) of small diameter trees (0.1-1.0cm) were recorded in the agrosilvopastoral system. This was followed by silvopastoral and agrisilviculture systems with 89 and 85, respectively. However, the highest number of large diameter woody tree species was recorded in the silvopastoral system followed by agrosilvopastoral and agrisilviculture systems. The regular reverse J-shaped and fairly regular reverse J-shaped size class distribution observed for agrosilvopastoral and silvopastoral respectively, suggest a recuperating population. Over exploitation, debarking, de-branching, root- digging, leaf harvesting, seed harvesting, poor regeneration, slow rate of growth, wind effect and bush burning were the major threats to sustainable management of woody plant species in the study area. The implications of our findings for sustainable management of woody plant species in the study area are discussed and recommendations made.
Authors and Affiliations
T. H. Dauda, S. O. Jimoh, I. O. Azeez
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP38748
- DOI -
- Views 184
- Downloads 0
Modeling of uniaxial compressive strength by genetic programming and neuro-fuzzy
Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) is the most important rock parameter required and determined for rock mechanical studies in most civil and mining projects. In this study, two soft computing approaches, which are kn...
Dytiscidae, Noteridae and Hydrophilidae of semi-arid rivers and reservoirs of Burkina Faso: species inventory, diversity and ecological notes
Conservation of biodiversity is a major concern due to climate change and pressure from human activities. Knowledge of aquatic insects and their ecology particularly in West Africa is still scanty and fragmented. To fill...
Gaseous emission estimations from earth’s land Fishponds, Cameroon
Global warming is an important determinant of life on the earth. Estimating the effect of management practices on gas emissions (ammonia and greenhouse) is a new challenge for the sustainable development of fish farming...
Mapping of arid rangeland vegetation types using satellite data (study site: Ameri, Iran)
Remote sensing assessment is used along with field data to enhance sampling and site representation. The research was carried out in Ameri region located between 50° 05´ to 50° 16´ east longitude and 30° 03´ to 30° 13´...
Valuation of solid benefits of a homestead forestry system in the Indus basin, Southern Punjab, Pakistan.
To evaluate the benefits of homestead forestry system to the farmers, a study was conducted in southern Punjab (Pakistan) with the hypothesis that “Homestead Forestry system has tremendous potential to enhance the econom...