Emerging ecological trends in West Africa: implications on soil organic matter and other soil quality indicators

Mesele, Samuel Ayodele; Ocansey, Caleb Melenya; Bougma, Amelie; Azeez, Jamiu O.; Ajiboye, Godwin A.; Logah, Vincent; Compaore, Halidou; Veenendaal, Elmar M.; Lloyd, Jonathan

doi:10.1007/s11104-024-06568-z

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 51 publications

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“…By virtue of its persistence in soil [38], global efforts are directed towards increasing carbon sequestration through the MAOC pool. Overall, our study clearly indicates that sustainable land management through indigenous effort in West Africa aligns with the recent global initiative of 're-carbonizing global soils' [39], serving unarguably as a right step towards achievement of the '4p1000' initiative towards ecosystem services and sustainability [32,40].…”

Section: Persistence Of Soil Organic Carbon In Anogeissus Grove/fores...mentioning

confidence: 59%

Exploring the West African forest island phenomenon: scientific insights gained, successes achieved and capacities strengthened

Logah,

Azeez,

Compaore

et al. 2024

Interface Focus.

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Anthropogenic activities around local villages in mesic savanna landscapes of West Africa have resulted in soil improvement and forest establishment outside their climatic zones. Such unique ‘forest islands’ have been reported to provide ecosystem services including biodiversity conservation. However, the science underpinning their formations is limitedly studied. In 2015 and with funding support from the Royal Society-DFID (now FCDO), we set out to investigate the biogeochemistry of the forest islands in comparison with adjacent natural savanna and farmlands across 11 locations in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria. Our results showed that the forest islands do not differ significantly from the adjoining ecosystems in soil mineralogy implying that their formation was anthropogenically driven. We observed greater soil organic carbon and nutrient distributions in the forest islands, which also had more stable macro (>500 μm) and meso-aggregates (500–250 μm) than the adjoining agricultural lands. We found that soil micro-aggregate (250–53 μm) stability was climate (precipitation) driven in the West African ecosystems while meso- and macro-aggregate stability was land-use driven. In one of the unique forest islands we studied in the Mole National Park of Ghana, we found its mineral-associated organic carbon over 40% greater than the adjoining natural savanna with potential implications for the achievement of the global initiative of the ‘4p1000’ in West Africa. We conclude that the North–South–South research collaboration has established clearly, the science underlying the age-long West African forest island phenomenon and has, among many successes, led to capacity building of young scientists driving cutting-edge research in climate change adaptation and food systems transformation in the sub-region.

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Section: Persistence Of Soil Organic Carbon In Anogeissus Grove/fores...mentioning

confidence: 59%

Exploring the West African forest island phenomenon: scientific insights gained, successes achieved and capacities strengthened

Logah,

Azeez,

Compaore

et al. 2024

Interface Focus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Soil organic carbon and nutrient characteristics of Anogeissus groves in old Opara forest reserve, Nigeria

Mesele,

Huising

2024

Environ Monit Assess

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Organic carbon and nutrient enrichment in clay-rich calcareous soils in self-regenerating fallows in humid tropical agroecology

Mesele,

Soremi,

Ayamba

et al. 2024

Arab J Geosci

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Emerging ecological trends in West Africa: implications on soil organic matter and other soil quality indicators

Cited by 4 publications

References 51 publications

Exploring the West African forest island phenomenon: scientific insights gained, successes achieved and capacities strengthened

Exploring the West African forest island phenomenon: scientific insights gained, successes achieved and capacities strengthened

Soil organic carbon and nutrient characteristics of Anogeissus groves in old Opara forest reserve, Nigeria

Organic carbon and nutrient enrichment in clay-rich calcareous soils in self-regenerating fallows in humid tropical agroecology

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