Author(s)

Nwabueze I. Igu

Department of Geography and Meteorology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.

Tropical forest ecosystems are generally seen as diverse ecosystems with rich biodiversity. However, how this applies to the freshwater swamp forests (especially in West Africa) is largely unknown. To verify how diverse this ecosystem is and how its structure varies in an intact forest landscape, one hectare forest plots were set up at 8 different points. This was used to collect information on the diversity and structure of the ecosystem. Consistent with the findings from other freshwater swamp forests, the ecosystem was seen to have a low species occurrence which ranged from 4 to 19 (mean value = 11 species) across the forest plots. Its diversity was equally low (mean = 1.66), unlike other tropical forest ecosystems. Stem heights varied as in mature tropical forest ecosystems; with the middle stratum recording the highest proportion of trees (54.63%) and the emergent layer having the least (0.83%). Its basal area, biomass and relative density were similar with other tropical ecosystems and equally had its highest species contribution from Leguminosae as in some other ecosystems as well. The ecosystem was seen to have features and characteristics that were common and similar with other tropical forest ecosystems, apart from its low diversity. Ensuring that effective and appropriate forest-tree species conservation measures are enhanced across the landscape are vital steps to securing the already existing (few) species and preventing species extinction across the ecosystem.

Biodiversity, Conservation, Forest Disturbance, Forest Management, Species Richness, Swamp Forests

Igu, N. (2017) Species Diversity and Structure of an Intact Freshwater Swamp Forest in the Niger Delta. Open Journal of Forestry, 7, 242-254. doi: 10.4236/ojf.2017.72015.