Journal of Forest and Environmental Science

Institute of Forest Science, kangwon National University (강원대학교 산림과학연구소)
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Behaviour of Vegetation Health as a Response to Climate and Soil Dynamics between 2000 and 2015 in Different Ecological Zones of Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Received : 2020.07.27
  • Accepted : 2021.09.07
  • Published : 2021.12.31
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Abstract

The study examined the influence of climate and soil dynamics on vegetation health across the ecological zones in Rivers State, Nigeria. MODIS imagery was used to assess the vegetation health through NDVI and point grid pattern of meteorological data for total precipitation (TP), air temperature (AT), soil moisture (SM) and soil temperature (ST) of 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 were used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Findings showed that NDVI ranged between 0.420 and 0.612 in the freshwater swamp (FWS) while between 0.465 and 0.611 in the rainforest and the NDVI in the mangrove was generally low. The highest mean AT was experienced in the mangrove ecological zone and the least was experienced in the rainforest. The mean SM was generally highest in the rainforest with highest value in 2000 (774.44 m3/m3). The ST was highest in the mangrove and the least was experienced in the rainforest while the TP was highest in the mangrove. NDVI correlated significantly with SM (r=0.720; p<0.05) and ST (r= -0.493; p<0.05). NDVI, SM, TP and ST significantly varied among the ecological zones. Regression analysis showed that vegetation health was significantly related to the combination of soil temperature and soil moisture (R2=0.641; p=0.000). Thus, monitoring the factors that affect vegetation health in a changing climate and soil environments is highly required.

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