Plant Species Diversity along Road Reserve in Kisumu County- Kenya

Abstract

Kisumu County has very minimal assessment of the local flora, with only scanty information from protected areas such as Ndere Island. There is no information on the roadside flora, yet road reserves are better conduit for biodiversity conservation due to limited human interference. This study assessed the role of a road reserve in conservation of floral diversity within Kisumu County. Species sampling was by transect method while percentage cover was by point quadrat method for grasses and herbs and total head count method for trees. Species identification was based on morphological attributes according to ICBN. A total of 133 plants were sampled from 45 families. The therophytes (19.8%) dominated in terms of cover, while, the microphanerophytes (18 species) dominated in species abundance. Fabaceae (20 species) had the highest number of species, though; Poaceae had the highest ground cover (15.7%).

Land-Use Is More Important Predictor of Native Abundance and Diversity Than Invasive Tithonia Diversifolia - Evidence From a Tropical Savanna

“…Besides, revealed that T. diversifolia seeds grow better in sites with moist soil and full light which are characteristics of our studied land-use types. Our results are consistent with other studies which revealed an equal abundance of T. diversifolia in these land-use types (Ayeni et al, 1997;Adebowale & Olorode, 2005;Chukwuka, Ogunyemi, & Fawole, 2007;Olorode et al, 2011;Okach & Amuka, 2015).…”

“…due to its habitat specificity, but benefit native weedy species which are disturbance-and stresstolerant such as Urena lobata L. (Okach & Amuka, 2015) In the riparian land-use type, we found a high abundance and diversity of natives with increased T. diversifolia abundance. A possible reason for the abundant and diverse native community in riparian habitats is regular exposure to flooding which reduces the potency of competitive interactions, thereby returning riparian plant communities to the early successional stage after flooding (Pollock et al, 1998).…”

“…On the roadside, we recorded a diverse but low abundance of natives with increased T. diversifolia abundance. Abiotic factors such as high light availability (Christen & Matlack, 2009), increased water runoff and altered soil texture (Okach & Amuka, 2015) along roadsides could promote the continuous establishment of T. diversifolia. In contrast, roadsides had a varied impact on native plant species, which could be species-specific and favor ruderal species (Lázaro-Lobo & Ervin, 2019).…”