Abstract
Human pressure on forest resources in southern Benin has led to a dramatic reduction and disturbance of natural forest patches. The largest remaining forest reserve in southern Benin is the Lama forest, which is known to be a reserve for many endangered species and situated in the boundary between dry forest and savanna. From cluster analysis and hierarchical classification of tree species composition, five forest types were identified in the Lama forest, and ordination techniques were used to determine to what extent these forest types were associated with physiognomic tree characteristics. The geographical position of vegetation plots was used to examine the spatial distribution of the identified forest types. The forest types were interpreted as levels in a successional sequence ranging from either disturbed forest or formerly cultivated farmland to dense forest. Based on the outlined succession sequence it was suggested that reforestation should focus on establishment of Anogeissus leiocarpus, Albizia zygia, Lannea nigritana, Ficus exasperata and Lonchocarpus sericeus as these tree species are associated with the initial forest types.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed other-oa. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 3
Claim · model-written summary
Five forest types were identified in the Lama forest.
Verbatim
e0“five forest types were identified in the Lama forest”
e1“tree species composition”
Claim · model-written summary
The forest types formed an interpreted succession from disturbed forest or former farmland to dense forest.
Verbatim
e0“The forest types were interpreted as levels in a successional sequence ranging from either disturbed forest or formerly cultivated farmland to dense forest.”
t0“forest types”
Claim · model-written summary
Reforestation should establish the five tree species associated with initial forest types.
Verbatim
e0“reforestation should focus on establishment of Anogeissus leiocarpus, Albizia zygia, Lannea nigritana, Ficus exasperata and Lonchocarpus sericeus as these tree species are associated with the initial forest types”