Flora composition, structure and diversity in the Kimbi Fungom National Park, North West Region, Cameroon

Abstract

The Kimbi Fungom National Park is reported to be relatively less diverse compared to other national parks of Cameroon. This might be due to the configuration of the landscape and habitat types. The main objective of this study is to determine the species composition, structure and diversity in the heterogeneous landscape of the Kimbi Fungom National Park defined by different habitat types. The park was divided into 20 blocks and 10 blocks were randomly selected for this flora survey. In each block, a 1 km line transect was established with 5 quadrates of 20 × 20 m. These transects were laid to cut across four major vegetation types (lowland rainforest, gallery forest, woodland and grassland savanna). A total of 2831 stems 1 cm circumference were identified and measured. This belongs to 222 species, in 54 families. Fabaceae, Rubiaceae and Euphorbiaceae were found to be the most dominant plant families. Tree density and basal area were lowest in the grassland while it was highest in the lowland forest. Species composition and diversity varied with vegetation type and landscape configuration. The lowland and gallery forest were characterized by high diversity and similar species composition shown by the Shannon diversity index of 3.8 and forest 3.75, respectively. Three species from our survey were known to be endemic to Cameroon (Allophyllus bullatus, Cleistopholis staudtii and Magnistipula butayei) while 6 species were known to be vulnerable; Afzelia africana, Afzelia bipindensis, Allophyllus bullatus, Entandrophragma angolense, Hallea stipulosa, and Quassia sanguine.

Floristic Composition and Structure of Bimbia-Bonadikombo Commuinty Forest, South West Region, Cameroon

“…There were fewer trees which belonged in DBH classes of 60 cm and above. Similar results were recorded by Zeh et al, (2019). This may be attributed to continuous degradation of the forests due to dominance and falling of bigger trees in addition to other factors like decrease in soil nutrients that limited the sustainability of tree species (Saunders et al, 1991).…”

“…This also corroborates with Lebrun (1936) whose study revealed that the vegetation of the Korup forest was dominated by Fabaceae. It was also reported same of Fabaceae being the most dominant plant family in the Kimbi-Fungom National Park, in the North West Region of Cameroon (Zeh et al, 2019). This confirmed the fact that Fabaceae is always amongst the three most dominant families in the world.…”

“…Trees with swollen stems at 1.3m were measured above the swelling while measurements for those with buttresses were taken at least 50 cm above the buttresses (Thomas et al, 2003). The heights of trees were measured Nasako, et al (2024) using the hypsometer (Vitax) and also by estimation i. e. average estimates of all field researchers (Zeh et al, 2019).…”