Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Guinea
Ghana
ZONE
Legend:
Study areas in Ghana and Guinea
forest-savanna transition
Figure 16.1 Map of West Africa showing location of the study sites in relation to the
forest-savanna transition zone
Source: Thies (1995)
A comparative study was designed to investigate the impact of human use and
other factors on the vegetation of these two countries.
Methodology
Study area
The chosen study sites are Kouroussa-Moussaya in Guinea, and the Asantekwa
area (including Tahiru-Akuraa, Bawa-Akura, and Dawadawa) and Tamale area
(including Binguri, Dugu-Song, Bognayili, and Jaagbo) in Ghana. A protected
forest in the Sudan savanna of Ghana at Binguri was studied as the reference for
comparison to the protected forest at Kouroussa-Moussaya.
Procedure
The PLEC-BAG and PLEC-STAT methodologies recommended by Zarin, Guo,
and Enu-Kwesi (1999) and Coffey (2000) were followed to determine:
•
species composition, similarity, and richness
•
frequency distribution of common species in the plots of the two countries
•
general rank order of species
•
abundance diversity and Shannon-Weiner diversity
•
girth- and height-class distribution of woody species
•
utility.
