Study on Floral Diversity, Composition and Structure in the Kimbi Fungom National Park, North West Region, Cameroon

Abstract

Ecological diversity is the degree at which life forms varies within the context of a particular ecosystem, biome, or entire planet. This encompasses all species of plants, animals and microorganisms, the ecosystem, and ecological processes of which they belong. The Kimbi Fungom National Park is reported to be relatively less diverse compared to other national parks of Cameroon. This might be due to the configuration of the landscape and habitat types. The main objective of this study is to determine the species composition, structure and diversity in the heterogeneous landscape of the Kimbi Fungom National Park defined by different habitat types. The park was divided into 20 blocks and 10 blocks were randomly selected for this flora survey. In each block, a 1 km line transect was established with 5 quadrates of 20 × 20 m. These transects were laid to cut across four major vegetation types (lowland rainforest, gallery forest, woodland and grassland savanna). A total of 2831 stems ³1 cm circumference were identified and measured. This belongs to 222 species, in 54 families. Fabaceae, Rubiaceae and Euphorbiaceae were found to be the most dominant plant families. Tree density and basal area were lowest in the grassland while it was highest in the lowland forest. Species composition and diversity varied with vegetation type and landscape configuration. The lowland and gallery forest were characterized by high diversity and similar species composition shown by the Shannon diversity index of 3.8 and forest 3.75, respectively. Three species from our survey were known to be endemic to Cameroon (Allophyllus bullatus, Cleistopholis staudtii and Magnistipula butayei) while 6 species were known to be vulnerable; Afzelia africana, Afzelia bipindensis, Allophyllus bullatus, Entandrophragma angolense, Hallea stipulosa, and Quassia sanguine. The management, preservation systems including local population and habitat regeneration will therefore be highly advantageous to save this protected area from destruction, save their flora and fauna species from local extinction and to maintain a viable population size in the face of growing anthropogenic activities.