Analysis of woody plants dimensions on the affected and restricted land management practices in Sudan Vegetation Zone, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Human activities have transformed the vegetal environment into affected and restricted areas with varied woodland dimensions. The aim of the study is to identify the difference in distributions, heights, girths and bole lengths of native woody plants on continuous cultivation, fallow and reserve lands of Hong Local Government Area in 2018. Data on woody plants distributions, heights, girths and bole lengths were generated from the field using quadrat samples and measuring tape. Stratified sampling technique was adopted to cover the study area while purposively sampling method was adopted to establish the sample quadrats on the three dissimilar land management practices adopted. Variance was used to analyze the data while ‘F’ distribution at 0.05% confidence limit was used to test for the significance. From the result, there are 181 woody plant stands observed on the 12 sample plots (1800m²). The woodland distributions vary from 17, 13 and 1 on fallow, reserve and continuous cultivation lands on 100m². The tallest (11.37m) woodlands are on continuous cultivation land followed by the reserve (10.20m) while the shortest (2.58m) is on fallow land. The girths vary from 1.89m, 1.03m and 0.23m on continuous cultivation, reserve and fallow lands respectively. The stems are 4.34m, 2.53m and 0.80m for reserve, continuous cultivation and fallow lands. For significant increase in tree distributions farmers should preserve seedlings during annual clearing and clean weeding as well adopt longer fallow period. The result implies with increase in human activities such as arable farming and wood harvesting lead to decrease in plant distribution and vice versa.

Keywords: Land management practices, Native woodlands, Savanna region, woodland dimensions