ABC_Mafinga Forest Reserve Vegetation survey

Elizabeth Mwafongo1

1 National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi, P.O. Box 528, Zomba, Malawi

Corresponding author(s): Elizabeth Mwafongo (emwafongo@yahoo.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Mwafongo E (2018): ABC_Mafinga Forest Reserve Vegetation survey. v1.3. National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/resource?r=abc_mafinga_forest_reserve_saamplingevent&v=1.3

Abstract

Mafinga Forest reserve according to a classification by White et al. 2001 is an Afromontane, mid-altitude forest   and lies between 09 59’ 00”S and  33 20’ 40” E and covers an area of about 250ha. The reserve lies at the border between Malawi and Zambia and is shared between the two countries. It lies on an altitude of 1600-1800m above the sea level
The vegetation is open canopy woodland of hills and scarps dominated by Brachystegia species, especially B. boehmii, and a degraded form of Uapaca kirkiana. Environmental Pressures and Development Inevitably, development entails environmental hazards, and environmental problems often appear as a result of inappropriate rural management through lack of appreciation of these hazards. A combination of poor soils, land unsuited for agriculture, high population growth.

Keywords: Samplingevent, Mafinga Forest Reserve, Malawi, Vegetation Survey

General description

Purpose: The objective of the field trip was to carry out a vegetation survey using plot sampling as the area is facing Environmental Pressures and Development

Project details

Project title: The African Biodiversity Challenge: unlocking data for sustainable development
Personnel: Elizabeth Mwafongo, Donald Mpalika
Funding: JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Study area descriptions/descriptor: The project will cover biodiversity data for the entire nation of Malawi.
Design description: The main objective of this project is to facilitate easy access to biodiversity data information held by the Museums in Malawi and the end product will be that biodiversity data will be made available on a national Data platform – the platform will be accessible through both the government Museum website and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) website. Distribution Maps – spatial data will be provided for all records whenever available. These will help to produce some distribution data for common species. Invasive species occurrence assessment – from plant occurrence data an assessment will be sought on the occurrence of known invasive species in Malawi. Increased capacity for biodiversity information management – officers at the Museums of Malawi and the Wildlife and Environmental Society will receive training in data management

Data published through GBIF: http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/resource?r=abc_mafinga_forest_reserve_saamplingevent

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The dataset consists of plant species all identified to species level
Taxonomic ranks
Order: Apiales, Celestrales, Ericales, Fabales, Gentianales, Malpighiales, Malvales, Myrtales, Proteales, Santanales, Sapindales

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The reserve lies at the border between Malawi and Zambia and is shared between the two countries. It lies on an altitude of 1600-1800m above the sea level.
Coordinates: 10°4'4.8''S and 9°50'60''S Latitude; 33°15'43.2''E and 33°26'31.2''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: December 8, 2013 - December 21, 2013

Methods

Method step description: The road from Chitipa town to through Chisenga up to the Malawi/Zambia boarder was used as a base for establishing transects and quadrats.Six transects placed 1km apart and a total of twelve quadrats (20 x 50 m) were established.
Study extent description: Chitipa town was used as a base because there were no lodging places in Chisenga which necessitated daily travelling for a distance of over 80km to access the Forest reserve.  The road from Chitipa town to through Chisenga up to the Malawi/Zambia boarder was used as a base for establishing transects and quadrats.
Sampling description: Six transects placed 1km apart and a total of twelve quadrats (20 x 50 m) were established. Experience in a range of countries has shown that observer fatigue increases markedly if plot sizes larger than 40 x 5m are used in complex vegetation – a factor likely to be compounded in rough terrain. Transect and quadrat positions were georeferenced using a GPS.Quadrats were spaced 100m apart. In each quadrat a general list of all plants was done. For tree species DBH and tree height were recorded on a data form
Quality control description: Species which could not be identified had their samples taken for further identification at the National Herbarium in Zomba.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive ABC_Mafinga Forest Reserve Vegetation survey
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/archive.do?r=abc_mafinga_forest_reserve_saamplingevent
Publication date of data: 2022-05-31
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-10-24
Hierarchy level: Dataset