Assessment of Edaphic conditions in the Mozogo-Gokoro National Park (Sudano-Sahelian zone of Cameroon)

Abstract

Vegetation health and vitality are generally dependent on soil quality. This concept particularly integrates the capacity of soils to ensure suitable conditions for plant growth. Soil physico-chemical analyses were used to make this qualitative assessment in Mozogo-Gokoro National Park. Litter and composite soil samples were collected at different depths from 0 to 150 cm in three collection units (CUs) established in the park vegetation. The results showed that throughout the park, soils have physico-chemical characteristics favourable to plant productivity, particularly in the surface horizons of the CUs, which correspond to dense to clear dry forests and gallery forests. It was particularly observed that there was an abundance of litter, good soil aggregate stability extending to depth, organic matter richness, and medium-to-high cation exchange capacities. Richness in available phosphorus, near-neutral pH water throughout the profile, textures conducive to water percolation and rooting, and absence of salt toxicity were seen as other fertility traits. However, the potential acidity and high C/N ratios confirm the fragility of these soils. These soil characteristics may also be moderately nuanced in the most savannah CU, exhibiting qualitative changes in soil samples from surface to depth. These physico-chemical attributes contrast significantly with those of natural ecosystems with degraded pedological types in the Sudano-Sahelian region, indicating a conservation of resilience in interaction with the vegetation.