Category: Natural History Publisher: Amazon
ISBN-10: 1694740366
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 105
Copyright: September 22, 2019
ISBN-13: 9781694740366
Price: $8.00 (eBook)
This book explains the formation and persistence of a mysterious/curious common forest type in the River Niger Delta area of West Africa, the origins of which has previously been un-known.
There is a swamp forest type that is common in the river Niger Delta area, characterized by presence of seasonally flooded trenches which are separated by mounds of earth (usually few inches higher than the highest flood level of the regional rainy season). The mounds bear vegetation only on their 'flat' top aspect. The vegetation could be dense rain-forest in some locations. The mounds persist for decades un-eroded down despite observable erosive forces in the forest type. The trenches remain without vegetation. The reason(s) for these realities and how the mounds and trenches came into existence in the first place have been unknown.
This book presents a report on my long investigation on this forest type, findings made and a Natural History of the forest type. A story that includes the cultural relevance of the forest type to tribal communities close to the forest type and natural nature conservation/environmental relevance of the forest type.
There are also some serious civil construction relevance of some of the findings, as well as some hidden aspects of the forest-type reality that need further studies.
Excerpt
There is a strange forest type in the Niger Delta, characterized by presence of forested mounds of earth separated by un-forested network of trenches which are flooded during rainy season. Some of the mounds are small strips of earth while others are large, with some as high as 8 feet from trench floor area, with large platform-like tops. The mounds are of clayey soil earth. The ecosystem of the forest type is unique; in rainy season it has aquatic area (the trenches) and dry land (the forested mounds) within reach for amphibious creatures as they move around in the forest type without returning in one direction for land.
Biodiversity of the forest type is rich.In dry season, the trenches are dry and the ecosystem becomes a large terrestrial one with empty un-forested trenches separating forested mounds. Trench areas become bare like a road network in an entire forest through which creatures can move with ease. In the terrain, the mounds become like obstacles that increase the chances of survival of prey against predators.
What is strange about the forest type? The mounds usually of clayey earth (not of rock) seem to stand forever against operating forces of erosion in the forest area. Heavy rains in rainy season of the region are usually strong enough to gradually wear down any standing pile of earth; yet the mounds evidently persist for decades and centuries. Secondly, the trenches characteristically do not support forestation, though they stay ‘dry’ (without surface water) and moist for at least five months in a year. This gives the picture that without the high standing mounds of earth that are randomly scattered in the strange forest landscape (or if all the mounds were removed and everywhere in the forest type becomes like the trench areas), the vast total area of land occupied by the forest type in the entire region would have no forests (just like the trench areas).
This book is on the Natural History of the forest type in the Niger Delta. It also features details of a previously unpublished investigation on the forest type in the Niger Delta (a study that took place between 1992 and 1997, followed by further observations and photo-shots of different aspects of the forest type till 2013). Findings show that the forests are not permanent forest-type. They will all naturally cease to be as they are today in decades’ or centuries’ time.
The forest type areas are discovered to be low-lying lands changing (transiting) from bare un-forested ancient seasonally flooded clayey soil marshland status to become a no-longer-flooded raised land area (raised above usual maximum flood levels) that thus supports forestation.Raised earth? Yes! In the Niger Delta, some species of swamp-earth-dwelling earthworms (see pictures in the book) found their way into usually un-forested ancient marshlands decades or centuries ago. For reason of a particular habit in their way of life (pointed out in the book), their casts started accumulating seasonally (when surface water is available). Casts accumulated over decades or centuries are the mounds we see in the Niger Delta. A single cast on a moist floor of an un-forested ancient marshland is the origin of a mound. A single cast on a moist marshland today is the beginning of a new mound (or actually the smallest mound). Dropping of more casts on a previous single cast by the worms lead to gradual increase of cast body and this eventually becomes a large mound. Terrestrial vegetation subsequently establish on the mounds (which are high above flood waters)..
There are implications, including indicators of presence of crude oil deposits. The language of the book is made a little less scientific for general readers to understand. It is still presented in a way to be appropriately educative on the forest type in the Niger Delta for those in relevant fields of science.
Want to review or comment on this book?
Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Reviews for "The Origin of Forested Mounds of the Niger Delta"
