Composition and species richness of forest plants along the Albertine Rift, Africa

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POULSEN, A.D., HAFASHIMANA, D., EILU, G., LIENGOLA, I.B., EWANGO, C.E.N. & HART, T.B. 2005. Composition and species richness of forest plants along the Albertine Rift, Africa. Biol. Skr. 55: 129-143. ISSN 0366-3612. ISBN 87-7304-304-4. The Albertine Rift is composed of a system of mountains from Lake Albert to Lake Tanganyika and harbours a high proportion of endemic species. In this area, 16 1-ha plots of 20 m × 500 m were placed in semi-evergreen forests between 770 m to 1520 m; 12 in Uganda and four in Congo. In the Ugandan plots, soil samples were taken for analyses and ground herbs (divided into pteridophytes and angiosperms), trees, climbers and epiphytes were inventoried. From the Congolean plots only data for ground herbs and trees are included. Species richness of ground herbs and trees were correlated with altitude but do not conform to simple models on Pleistocene refugia and might also be explained by environmental factors of the present. Species composition matrices calculated on the bases of presence-absence for each of the five plant groups were highly and significantly correlated and thus any of them can be used as a rough indicator of more general floristic patterns, which provides a tool for rapid assessment of species composition in other Albertine forests in the future. The floristic pattern of most plant groups were correlated with patterns in altitude, pH and cation concentrations (which were intercorrelated). Species composition has two components related to altitude: an Albertine submontane and a Congolean lowland.

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