International Journal of
Biodiversity and Conservation

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Biodivers. Conserv.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-243X
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJBC
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 679

Full Length Research Paper

Diversity, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, and spatial cover of herbaceous species in Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Southeastern Botswana

Demel Teketay*
  • Demel Teketay*
  • Depratment of Crop Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), Private Bag 2007, Gaborone, Botswana.
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Glen Geeves
  • Glen Geeves
  • Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Private Bag 0457, Gaborone, Botswana.
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Ismael Kopong
  • Ismael Kopong
  • Depratment of Crop Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), Private Bag 2007, Gaborone, Botswana.
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Witness Mojeremane
  • Witness Mojeremane
  • Depratment of Crop Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), Private Bag 2007, Gaborone, Botswana.
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Bongani Sethebe
  • Bongani Sethebe
  • Department of Biological Sciences, University of Botswana (UN), Private Bag UB00704, Gaborone, Botswana.
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Sean Smith
  • Sean Smith
  • Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Private Bag 0457, Gaborone, Botswana.
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  •  Received: 13 April 2016
  •  Accepted: 09 June 2016
  •  Published: 31 August 2016

Abstract

Diversity of woody and herbaceous species, stand structure and regeneration status of woody species, spatial cover of the herbaceous species as well as nutritional values of woody and herbaceous species were studied in Mokolodi Nature Reserve (MNR), Botswana. Ten 1 ha quadrats were used to collect data, and in each quadrat, ten 1 m2 plots were used to estimate the spatial cover of herbaceous species. MNR exhibited high species, genera and family richness, but low diversity and eveness. The diversity and eveness values of woody species were 1.44 and 0.38, respectively. Density of woody species was about 4,785 ha-1. Most of the woody species demonstrated unstable population structures and hampered natural regeneration. The spatial cover of all herbaceous species was only 44.67% ha-1. The nutritional values of the species ranged between low and high while there was no information on the nutrtion values for 16 and 55% of the woody species and herbaceous species, respectively. The dominance values of woody species indicate inadequate number of big-sized trees, and that MNR is still at the recovery phase. For 68% of the woody species, natural regeneration is hampered. Future research topics and recommendations on the future management of MNR are proposed.

Key words: Density, dominance, evenness, frequency, importance value index, nutritional value, over grazing, population structure, soil erosion, species richness.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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