Decomposition of litter on the forest floor and of leaves of five species, Celtis zenkeri, Cola lepidota, Desbordesia glaucescens, Ceiba pentandra and Terminalia superba in nylon mesh bags, as well as wood decay were studied in the tropical rainforest at Southern Bakundu Forest Reserve, Cameroon.The rate of loss of dry matter was fastest in Celtis zenkeri which was significantly different from the other species, while potassium was the most rapidly released element from all species with more than 50% being released in the first two months of the experiment. Nitrogen and phosphorus showed initial increases in bagged leaf litter independent of dry weight losses and while nitrogen was later released phosphorus continued to increase reaching 2–3 times the initial concentration. Decomposition constant (k) of litter on the forest floor was found to be 2.23 whereas the mean decomposition constants of the different species were as follows: Celtis zenkeri 4.18, Cola lepidota 2.18, Desbordesia glaucescens 1.60 and Ceiba pentandra 2.16 for the two experiments.Termites were found to have a very great influence on the decay of the wood of Terminalia superba with decay due to micro-organisms being negligible.

Seedlings of Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex. Benth., Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth., Gliricidia sepium (Jac.) Walp and Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. were inoculated with an ectomycorrhizal (Boletus suillus (L. ex. Ft.) or indigenous vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi in a low P soil.The plants were subjected to unstressed (well-watered) and drought-stressed (water-stressed) conditions. In Gliricidia and Leucaena, both mycorrhizal inoculations stimulated greater plant growth, P and N uptake compared to their non-mycorrhizal (NM) plants under both watering regimes. However, in Acacia and AIbizia, these parameters were only stimulated by either ectomycorrhiza (Acacia) or VA mycorrhiza (Albizia). Growth reduction occurred as a result of inoculation with the other type of mycorrhiza. This was attributed to competition for carbon between Acacia and VA mycorrhizas and parasitic association between Albizia and ectomycorrhiza.Drought-stressed mycorrhizal and NM Leucaena, and drought-stressed mycorrhizal Acacia tolerated lower xylem pressure potentials and larger water losses than the drought-stressed mycorrhizal and NM Albizia and Gliricidia. These latter plants avoided drought by maintaining higher xylem pressure potentials and leaf relative water content (RWC). All the four leguminous plants were mycorrhizal dependent. The higher the mycorrhizal dependency (MD), the lower the drought tolerance expressed in terms of drought response index (DRI). The DRI may be a useful determinant of MD, as they are inversely related.

A review of previous evaluations of long-term changes in treated Nigerian rain forest is presented, to show that these studies have concentrated on economic species with little consideration of other species, or of forest biomass and structure.We examine regeneration and successional patterns in Omo Forest Reserve by comparing enumeration data taken before (1952) and after (1981) treatment of the forest by selective canopy opening and climber-cutting (Plot A), or clear-felling and burning (Walsh system) (Plot C).Before treatment, about 50 species in 25 families were found of stems ≥10 cm dbh, in 4.05 ha of the forest, the Euphorbiaceae contributing the greatest number of species while the medium-sized trees Diospyros alboflavescens (Ebenaceae) and Strombosia pustulata (Olacaceae) contributed more than 40% of the stems.Twenty-eight years after treatment (1981) the number of species and families remained similar to those in 1952, although smaller areas (0.75 ha) were enumerated; the treated plots were, however, dominated by early succession species such as Macaranga barteri, Musanga cecropioides, Cleistopholis patens, Funtumia elastica and Fagara macrophylla, and lacked an abundance of the ‘economic’ species that treatment had been expected to induce; the medium-sized trees that were dominant in 1952 were still abundant in Plot A but not in Plot C.For stems ≥ 30 cm dbh tree diversity (reciprocal of Simpson's index) was highest (15.7) in a 1952 plot and least (4.8) in the clear-felled plot enumerated in 1981; diversity of the 1952 plots, however, fell markedly to values lower than those for the 1981 plots when computation was based on all stems ≥10 cm dbh, presumably because of increase in abundance of small-stemmed species like Diospyros spp., Strombosia sp. and Rinorea sp., each represented by a large number of stems.Basal area was greatest (29.6 m2 ha−1) in the 1952 plots and least (12.7 m2 ha−1) in the clear-felled plots enumerated in 1981, but the relative distribution of basal area and number of stems in size-classes was similar in all the plots.Mean annual increment, computed by dividing the mean diameter (7.50 cm) of the stems in the clear-felled plots by the number of years (28) over which they had grown, was 0.27 cm.Nauclea diderrichii dominated the seedling regeneration from the first year after clear-felling and burning (1954) till the sixth year (1960), when seedlings of the Meliaceae entered the regeneration list and overall seedling density was 395 per hectare.Among the plots assessed in 1981, the standing crop was greatest in an untreated Control plot (229.6 t ha−1) followed by Plot A (159.7 t ha−1) and Plot C (91.1 t ha7−1), but the relative allocation of biomass to stem, branch, leaf, root and fruit fractions was comparable for all plots.The data are discussed in relation to other Nigerian forest studies and it is suggested that the main qualitative features of structural organization and the species composition of the top canopy synusia of mature secondary rain forest may be determined quite early in the development of the stand.

This paper compares and contrasts changing rural–urban linkages drawing on research in six case study areas in Mali, Nigeria and Tanzania. The aim of the research was to gain a better understanding of the ways in which the livelihoods of rural and urban households rely on both rural-based and urban-based resources, and on exchanges between urban and rural areas. The paper describes changes in farming systems under the impact of urban expansion, with special attention to access to land and other natural resources such as water, and also access to markets and the role of traders, especially small-scale operators. It also examines how changing rural and urban contexts, as well as wider national and regional contexts, affect patterns of income diversification and mobility, especially the differential impacts with regard to women and men and to young and older people. Finally, it analyzes the role of the case studies’ urban centres in the economic and social development of their surrounding regions.

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