Abstract
The study of structural and tree flora biodiversity of the forest of the Mbomo-Kellé UFA was done on an area of 88.5 ha (0.014% of the total UFA area). The inventory was carried out in plots of 200 m × 25 m (0.5 ha), arranged in a contiguous way along the opened trails in the forest with an equidistance interval of 2 km. 11,012 trees of DBH ≥20 cm were counted, divided into 107 genera, 31 families and 133 species including 121 completely identified and 12 defined only in terms of genus. Data analysis consisted of calculating relative and weighted frequencies, the Shannon and Weaver diversity indexes, Pielou’s evenness index, and the Jaccard and Sorensen similarity indices. Relative frequencies showed that the most representative family in terms of species is the Fabaceae-Caesal piniodeae with 18.05% of species and the most representative in terms of individuals is the Burseraceae with 19.17% of inventoried trees. The principal components analysis allowed to show inter- and intra-block heterogeneities.
Highlights
Tropical forests are the subject of several studies to better understand the role they could play in sustainable development, climate change, and floristic biodiversity
Weighted spectrum shows that in addition to the Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae, the families of the Burseraceae (19.17%), of the Myristicaceae (13.29%) and of Euphorbiaceae (9%) are the most represented in the number of trees regardless of the inventoried block. These high values are dependent on the abundance of the species respectively Santiria trimera, Scyphocephalium mannii and Plagiostyles africana as we found Kimpouni et al (2007) in the forests of the Bambama UFA thereby reinforcing the transition forest characteristic of the Mbombo-Kellé UFA, between the forests of the South and North Congo forests
All inventoried blocks were rich in FabaceaeCaesalpinoideae, Meliaceae, Myristicaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae Mimosoideae, Burseraceae and Annonaceae
Summary
Tropical forests are the subject of several studies to better understand the role they could play in sustainable development, climate change, and floristic biodiversity. Tropical forests are characterized by high biodiversity, this diversity is an indicator that allows to appreciate links between the richness and the abundance of individuals; it reflects the degree of heterogeneity or stability of vegetation (Basnet, 1992; Trichon, 1997). Sustainable management of these forests requires a sound knowledge of all the natural forest resource; this knowledge can be relied upon only by field studies of the forest environment. Long-term biodiversity conservation depends basically on knowledge of the structure, the species richness and the ecological characteristics of the vegetation
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