Human Influences on Tree Diversity and Composition of a Coastal Forest Ecosystem: The Case of Ngumburuni Forest Reserve, Rufiji, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of an ecological survey conducted in Ngumburuni Forest Reserve, a biodiversity rich forest reserve within the coastal forests of Tanzania. The main goal of this study was to determine the influence of uncontrolled anthropogenic activities on tree species diversity and composition within the forest ecosystem. It was revealed that economic activities including logging, charcoaling, and shifting cultivation were the most important disturbing activities affecting ecological functioning and biodiversity integrity of the forest. Further to this, we noted that the values of species diversity, composition, and regeneration potential within the undisturbed forest areas were significantly different from those in heavily disturbed areas. These observations confirm that the ongoing human activities have already caused size quality degradation of useful plants, enhanced species diversification impacts to the forest ecosystem, and possibly negatively affected the livelihoods of the adjacent local communities. Despite these disturbances, Ngumburuni forest reserve still holds important proportions of both endemic and threatened animal and plant species. The study suggests urgent implementation of several conservation measures in order to limit accessibility to the forest resources so as to safeguard the richness and abundance of useful biodiversity stocks in the reserve.

Diversity, Population Structure, and Above Ground Biomass in Woody Species on Ngomakurira Mountain, Domboshawa, Zimbabwe

“…Miombo woodland dynamics is strongly influenced by anthropogenic factors [6][7][8] and most ecosystems are being threatened by the increased demand for services by the burgeoning human population [9]. Woodland ecosystems and their valuable biodiversity resources are being lost at an accelerated rate [10][11][12], thereby altering ecosystem function and consequently threatening the provision of services and goods especially to poor rural communities [13].…”

Effect of man-made disturbances on understory plant richness of oak forests in Iran

“…The results of their study showed that logging had a negative influence on species richness. Also, the study conducted by Kimaro and Lulandala (2013) revealed that logging, charcoaling, and shifting cultivation affected biodiversity integrity of the forests, The authors report that values of species diversity and composition within the undisturbed forest areas were significantly different from the corresponding values in heavily disturbed areas.…”

Canonical Correlation Analysis across Vegetation and Soil Properties of the Disturbed and Undisturbed Coastal Forest Ecosystems

“…Different processes and activities occurring in forest ecosystems affect forest structural parameters by providing favorable or unfavorable conditions [2,6]. Disturbances affect the ecological relationship between forest vegetation and soils [8,9,10,11]. In essence, human induced disturbances bring soil degradation, which is defined in this study as any physical or chemical alteration of the soils caused by different operations in forest ecosystems [1].…”

“…Thus, there is a strong relationship between disturbances on plant species composition and impacts on soil parameters [18,19]. Understanding the impacts of human activities on the coastal forests of Tanzania is crucial because these activities have affected the structure and biodiversity of these forests for more than 50 years [8]. It is obvious that human activities affected the coastal biodiversity, which is composed of over 10,000 plant species, hundreds of which are recognized as nationally endemic [20,21,22].…”