Ecotaxonmic baseline evaluation of the plant species in a seasonally flooded forest land proposed for a Rivgas refinery project in Ase-Ndoni, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The survey of the flora composition of an ecosystem is important in several environmental baseline studies. An ecotaxonomic assessment was carried out in Ase-Ndoni proposed Rivgas Refinery project site in other to find out the plant species of medicinal and other economic values. The investigation was carried out to establish a baseline data for imminent environmental vicissitudes and envisaged ecological vagaries as could be the case with the Rivgas Refinery Project. A simple random sampling based on standard procedure for ecological assessment was employed in this study. Results of the enumeration show seasonal variation in species frequency of occurrence. A total of 41 and 24 representative species of medicinal and other economic plants were recorded in the wet and in the dry seasons. These reflect a rich flora diversity of ethnobotanical values in the project site. Hence the envisaged event of uncontrolled and accidental hydrocarbon and effluent discharge, a preconceived knowledge of the vegetation could be helpful in the determination of the long and short term effects of such ecological problem.

KEYWORDS: Environment, project area, vegetation sampling, species abundance, and medicinal / economic species.