The study examined the influence of climate and soil dynamics on vegetation health across the ecological zones in Rivers State, Nigeria. MODIS imagery was used to assess the vegetation health through NDVI and point grid pattern of meteorological data for total precipitation (TP), air temperature (AT), soil moisture (SM) and soil temperature (ST) of 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 were used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Findings showed that NDVI ranged between 0.420 and 0.612 in the freshwater swamp (FWS) while between 0.465 and 0.611 in the rainforest and the NDVI in the mangrove was generally low. The highest mean AT was experienced in the mangrove ecological zone and the least was experienced in the rainforest. The mean SM was generally highest in the rainforest with highest value in 2000 (774.44 m3/m3). The ST was highest in the mangrove and the least was experienced in the rainforest while the TP was highest in the mangrove. NDVI correlated significantly with SM (r=0.720; p<0.05) and ST (r= -0.493; p<0.05). NDVI, SM, TP and ST significantly varied among the ecological zones. Regression analysis showed that vegetation health was significantly related to the combination of soil temperature and soil moisture (R2=0.641; p=0.000). Thus, monitoring the factors that affect vegetation health in a changing climate and soil environments is highly required.
목차
Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Study area Acquisition of imageries Image geo-processing for vegetation change Extraction of precipitation, air temperature, soil temperature and soil moisture Results and Discussions Vegetation health across the ecological zones in Rivers State Air temperature analysis in Rivers State from 2000 to 2015 Soil moisture analysis in Rivers State from 2000 to 2015 Soil temperature across different ecological zones in Rivers State Total precipitation across different ecological zones in Rivers State Variation in the vegetation health, soil temperature,soil moisture, air temperature and total precipitation Relationship among the vegetation health, air temperature, precipitation, soil temperature and soil moisture in Rivers State Discussion of findings Conclusion References
Olatunde Sunday Eludoyin [ Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria ]
Corresponding Author
Olawale Oluwamuyiwa Aladesoun [ Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria ]