Comparative study of the floristic and structural diversity of three lowland forests of the former Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

The present study was carried out in the aim of comparing the floristic diversity, the areal richness and the structure of three lowland forest types of the former Province Orientale notably Rubi Télé in Buta territory, UMA in Ubundu territory and Wela in Aketi territory. This comparative study is a contribution to the improvement of knowledge on the influence of soil type and the remoteness of forest types on the floristic composition and distribution of species in the lowland forests of the former Province Orientale. To achieve this, an inventory of all trees with dbh ≥ 10 cm (all species combined) in 36 plots of 0.25 ha was performed. At the end of this floristic and structural study conducted in the forests, we counted a total of 1120 individuals distributed to 191 species in 40 families in these three different sites. The average basal area for these three sites is 25.40 m ha. In terms of group diversity, the ANOVA test showed no significant differences, because F = 1.844, p value is greater than 0.05, either 0.213. In terms of diametric structure, the chi-square was calculated Chi-square = 35.5599, df = 18, p value = 0.00803. The density for extrapolation (per hectare) with ANOVA the value for F = 7.91, p value = 0.0104 this shows that there was a significant difference.