Composition and Classification of Tree Species in a Degraded Tropical Humid Rainforest in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Tree species information is essential for forest studies such as forest meteorology, botany and ecology, and across the relevant fields new techniques efficient for classifying tree species are desperately in demand. This study assessed tree species composition and classification in a degraded tropical rainforest in Southwest Nigeria. Data was collected from the Olukayode compartment of the study area of size 2 ha. Eight (8) Temporary sample plots of size 50 m x 50 m was laid using systematic line transect at 100 m intervals in the compartment. Hierarchical clustering in SPSS was used to find clusters of patterns in the measurement space. Tree species such as; Eucalyptus cameldulensis, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Khaya ivorensis, Khaya senegalensis,Nauclea diderichi, Terminalia randii, and Terminalia superba with a total frequency of 60 were identified, belonging to 3 different families. At similarity 5.0 from the dendrogram using ward linkage, samples 48 - 6 formed the first cluster, samples 28 - 9 constituted the second cluster while samples 20 - 13 constituted the third cluster. From the dendrogram using centroid linkage, at similarity 5.0, samples 59 - 7 formed the first cluster, samples 32 - 31 constituted the second cluster, and samples 8 - 28 formed the third cluster while the fourth cluster combined samples 17 - 21 which is a combination of trees from the three families. Histogram was used to show the diameter at breast height and total height distribution.