Impacts of Different Tree Species of Different Sizes on Spatial Distribution of Herbaceous Plants in the Nigerian Guinea Savannah Ecological Zone

Abstract

This study was aimed at finding the impacts of different tree species and individual trees of different sizes on species richness, diversity, and composition of the herbaceous layer. All the three tree species have greatly increased species richness and diversity both within and outside their crown zones compared with the open grassland. Both species richness and diversity were found to be higher under all the three tree species than outside their crowns, which was in turn higher than the open field. Daniella oliveri has the highest species richness and diversity both within and outside its crown zone followed by Vitellaria paradoxa and then Parkia biglobosa. The result also revealed that the same tree species with different sizes leads to different herbaceous species richness, diversity, and composition under and around the trees' crowns. P. biglobosa and V. paradoxa trees with smaller sizes showed higher species richness and diversity under their crowns than the bigger ones. The dissimilarity of species composition differs between the inside and outside crown zones of the individuals of the same tree species and among the different trees species and the open field.

The ecology of edible mushrooms of the Nigerian savannah: Towards their optimal exploitation

“…As a result of these, the distribution and productivity of wild edible mushrooms are also affected, whose environmental requirements differ among different species (Egli, 2011;Alday et al, 2017;Vishwakarma et al, 2017). However, the magnitude by which trees in the dry lands influence the meteorological conditions at a micro-scale, under their canopy depends on their crown morphological attributes like the size, density, depth of their crowns and leaf density (Buba, 2015a;Buba, 2015b). These features should be expected to vary among different tree species and individuals.…”

Genetic Diversity, Conservation and Improvement of Gongronema latifolium Benth., in South-Eastern Nigeria Using the Internal Transcribed Spacer – ITS

“…This further support the already established distribution pattern for the species in the current research study. The low genetic diversity detected for Enugu population may be linked with the derived savanna ecological setting of the areas, and the low genetic diversity of plant species known for such zones [26]. [27] reported that desertification and urbanization are the main contributors to deforestation in Enugu state, while [13] reported the gradual extinction flora and fauna in the zone due to urbanization and deforestation.…”

Savanna Biomes In Nigeria: Indicatzor Species And Plant Adaptation Strategies

“…Natural grasslands Natural grasslands may be found in a variety of climatic and geological settings, with soil and climate serving as the primary determinants of where they can be found. Natural savannas, which are typically thought of as tropical savannas, are found in the seasonal wet-dry zones sandwiched between the humid equatorial zones and the arid zones in the mid latitudes: between lat 10 o and 30 o north and south of the equator (Buba, 2015;Hutley and Setterfield, 2018) In general, natural grasslands and savannas can be considered intermediates in an environmental gradient, with forests at one end and deserts at the other. Savannas are found where moisture, soil texture, nutrients, herbivory, and fire allow co-dominance of grasses and trees.…”

“…Unlike the forests, the savanna vegetation is hardly arranged in different vertical layers, especially the more open vegetation in the northern part of the inventory area. The graminaceous layer is the most prominent element of the savanna ecological system (Jibrin, 2013;Buba, 2015). Almost all human and faunal activity is concentrated in this layer.…”