The Relative Abundance of Floraspecies in the Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem of Boki Nigeria

This study was conducted with the view to analysing flora species abundance in the tropical rainforest ecosystem of Boki. Despite the spate of indiscriminate logging, this area still remains one of the few ecosystems that have been highly valued for its species diversity. Two forest formations the protected and the unprotected forest were used for the analysis. Six forest enclaves – Kanyang, Borum, Isobendeghe, Okwa I, Okwa II and Okwango were chosen for the study. Transects were laid from the centre of each forest enclave to the heart of the forest. Actual measurement of the quadrat started at a distance of 2km away from each enclave. A quadrat of 100m by 100m was demarcated for flora species identification and enumeration. The relative abundance was computed using the frequency of each species as percentage of the total species in the quadrat. The mean (x-) proportional abundance was computed to determine levels of flora species abundance. This was also complemented with the lognormal curve. Here, the number of flora species was plotted against individual species. The girth of each flora species was determined at breast height of 1.5m. The result of the analysis revealed that very few flora species were of low and high abundance whereas majority were in moderate abundance. Also majority of the trees in the area were in the category of 6-10 metre girth at breast height in the protected forest and 0-5 metre girth at breast height in the unprotected forest.

Keywords: Abundance, Ecosystem, Forest, Frequency, Species