Floristic composition, diversity and structure of the forest communities in the Kouilou Département, Republic of Congo

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to classify, describe and map the forest communities in the study area and to investigate possible gradients in plant diversity. The study area comprised approximately 166 000 ha in the Kouilou Département, Republic of Congo, a section of land targeted for extensive future development. In total 156 forest sample sites were surveyed using the Braun-Blanquet method of phytosociology. Diversity of each plant community was expressed in terms of species richness; Shannon-Wiener index; exponent of Shannon-Wiener index; evenness; Fisher's alpha; Simpson’s index; and inverse Simpson index. Eleven plant communities were described and mapped at a much finer scale than has been done previously. The communities were arranged along two gradients: a degraded – relatively intact gradient and a wet – dry gradient. The least degraded communities, and consequently those with the highest conservation value, were the swamp forests and the okoumé forest. Overall, the values reported for the diversity parameters in the current study were within the range reported for other tropical forests in Central Africa. The study revealed a gradient between the coast (west) and the Mayombe mountain range (east) in plant diversity linked to topography and climate with plant diversity lowest at the coast. Furthermore, plant diversity was negatively related to the distance to human infrastructure. The forest communities appear to be fairly resilient to past anthropogenic disturbances, however, there is no historical analogue to the more severe types of forest destruction associated with some of the future developments anticipated, such as mechanized logging or mining.