Comparative Analysis of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Temperature between Forest and Non-Forested Domains in Oyo State, Nigeria

B.m Awosusi ,M.D Amori,E.D Adedoyin,I.S Adamu,D.O Atiba,A.R Orunkoyi,A.a Obe

doi:10.4314/jasem.v25i3.21

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the concentration levels of CO2 and temperature and also to correlate their values among selected locations in Oyo State, Nigeria. CO2 and temperature readings were taken using a portable CO2 meter, and a GPS was use to capture co-ordinates of sample points, this was done twice a day. Data were collected from 7am to 11am for morning session while afternoon session data were collected between 1pm and 5pm making a total of 8 hours monitoring. There were negative correlation between CO2 and temperature in all the forests while we have positive correlation between CO2 and temperature in non-forested domains, this, by implication, means that presence of trees in the forest reserve help to reduce Carbon dioxide during the day since trees manufacture their food using CO2 in the presence of sunlight. Also, the positive correlation between CO2 and temperature in the towns is due to high rate of human anthropogenic activities during the day. The values of CO2 obtained in this study were higher when compared with IPCC limit of 435 ppm (parts per million) of CO2 emission. Routine monitoring of carbon dioxide and public education is recommended. Keywords: Carbon dioxide, Temperature, Forest, Non-Forest, Forest Reserve

Highlights

A proper understanding of the relationship between the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and global temperature is a prerequisite to evaluating anthropogenic impact on climate change (Davis, 2017)
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and temperatures between forest and non-forested domains in Oyo State, Nigeria
A Welch’s t–test showed a marked statistical difference in the measurement of the CO2 concentration for each forest reserve and non-forested domain close to them (Table 5), at 95% confidence interval. This result shows that the recent CO2 increase is causing the temperature increase in nonforested domain, there exist weak correlations between surface temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration in the forest

Summary

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Area: Oyo state is an inland state in the south western part of Nigeria, with its capital in Ibadan. It is bounded in the North by Kwara State, East by Osun State, South by Ogun State and in West partly by. Pearson’s correlation coefficient: was used to measure the relationship between the variables considered for this study (CO2 and temperature). It has a value between – 1 and + 1 and is of the form: AWOSUSI, BM; ADAMU, IS; ORUNKOYI, AR; ATIBA, DO; OBE, AA; AMORI, MD; ADEDOYIN, ED r=. Where t connotes Welch’s t–statistic and df represents the degree of freedom for the Welch’s test

AND DISCUSSION

Findings

Conclusion