Diversity, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, and spatial cover of herbaceous species in Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Southeastern Botswana

Abstract

Diversity of woody and herbaceous species, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, spatial cover of the herbaceous species as well as nutritional values of woody and herbaceous species were studied in Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Botswana. Ten 1 ha quadrats were used to collect data, and in each quadrat, ten 1 m 2 plots were used to estimate the spatial cover of herbaceous species. MNR exhibited high species, genera and family richness, but low diversity and eveness. The diversity and eveness values of woody species were 1.44 and 0.38, respectively. Density of woody species was about 4,785 ha -1 . Most of the woody species demonstrated unstable population structures and hampered natural regeneration. The spatial cover of all herbaceous species was only 44.67% ha -1 . The nutritional values of the species ranged between low and high while there was no information on the nutrtion values for 16 and 55% of the woody species and herbaceous species, respectively. The dominance values of woody species indicate inadequate number of big-sized trees, and that MNR is still at the recovery phase. For 68% of the woody species, natural regeneration is hampered. Future research topics and recommendations on the future management of MNR are proposed.

Restoration of diversity and regeneration of woody species through area exclosure: the case of Maun International Airport in northern Botswana

“…Dichrostachys cinerea and two species of Vachellia, namely V. erioloba and V. tortilis, exhibited healthy regeneration outside MIA despite pressure from anthropogenic activities and herbivory impacts. This may indicate bush encroachment due to overgrazing (Neelo et al 2015;Teketay et al 2016). The leaves of V. tortilis and V. erioloba are nutritious (Tolsma et al 1987;Moleele 1998), but the presence of thorns limit browsing by herbivores and, as a result, the species proliferate into trees and shrubs (Moleele & Perkins 1998).…”

“…The first quadrat was placed 20 m away from the first transect line to minimise the border effect. Following the procedure adopted by Neelo et al (2013Neelo et al ( , 2015 and Teketay et al (2016Teketay et al ( , 2018, the following parameters were recorded in each of the quadrats: identity of all woody species, number of all live individuals of each woody species and height of all woody species. A graduated 20 mm polyvinyl chloride (PVC) conduit was used to measure plant height.…”

“…Various studies on the area exclosure have been conducted in Botswana, including in Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR) in southern Botswana (Flyman 1999;Käller 2003;Bengtsson-Sjörs 2006;Teketay et al 2016) and also in northern (Neelo et al 2015;Teketay et al 2018) parts of the country. In the case of the studies in MNR, Flyman (1999) excluded herbivores to determine the fate of seedlings of woody species, Käller (2003) investigated growth pattern and reproduction of woody vegetation and Bengtsson-Sjörs (2006) studied establishment and survival of woody seedlings.…”

“…In the case of the studies in MNR, Flyman (1999) excluded herbivores to determine the fate of seedlings of woody species, Käller (2003) investigated growth pattern and reproduction of woody vegetation and Bengtsson-Sjörs (2006) studied establishment and survival of woody seedlings. Recently, Teketay et al (2016) found that most woody species in MNR exhibited unstable population structure and hampered natural regeneration following exposure to overgrazing and other heavy anthropogenic impacts. In northern Botswana, studies on exclosure were conducted in sites close to the current study area by Neelo et al (2015) and Teketay et al (2018).…”

Floristic Diversity, Population Structure, Regeneration Status and Socio-Economic Importance of Fach Forest, South Gondar, Northwestern Ethiopia

“…A reverse "J" distribution is considered as an indication of stable population structure or good regeneration status (Silvertown and Doust 1993;Bekele 1993;Teketay 1997;Zegeye et al 2006Zegeye et al , 2011Teketay et al 2016). The natural regeneration potential of Fach forest was promising, provided that appropriate conservation and management interventions could be employed.…”