I.U. Nelson¹ , U. I. Udoakpan² , D.E. Jacob²

1. Biodiversity Preservation Center, Uyo, Nigeria
2. Forestry and Wildlife Department, University of Uyo, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2015.05.0005
Received: 02 Mar., 2015    Accepted: 13 Apr., 2015    Published: 06 May, 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Nelson et al., 2015, Population Density and Diversity of Plants Species in Ikot Efre Itak Community Forest, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, International Journal of Mol. Ecol. and Conserv, Vol.5, No.5 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2015.05.0005)

This study was aimed at assessing the diversity and population of plants species in Ikot Efre Itak Community forest in Nigeria. A total of 59 plant species were identified in the study area comprising 33 tree species, 12 shrub, 7 herbs, 34 climbers and 3 palms species. Mimusops heckelii and Canarium schweinfurthii, had the highest tree population density of 16 and 12 individual/0.6 ha respectively, all other tree species has a density of less than 10 individual/ha. In the shrub category, Bambusia vulgaris had the highest shrub population density with 31 individual/0.6 ha. Also, Costus afar and Hippocratea africana had the highest density of 53/0.6 ha and 11/0.6 ha respectively in the herb category. The result further shows that Ancistrophyllum secondiflorum had the highest population density of 23 in the palm category. Given the high rate of forest destruction in the country, there is need for to ensure sustainable conservation of the forest area to avoid further destruction by provision of alternative means of livelihood for the local population to reduce their dependence on these forest.

Population density; Diversity; Rainforest; Akwa Ibom; Nigeria