Secondary Succession and Soil Fertility Restoration in South-Western Nigeria: I. Succession

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Abstract
An inferential approach is used to study secondary succession in tropical forest fallows during their first 10 yr and in comparison with mature forest. One and 3 yr old fallows were dominated by microphanerophytes which were replaced, mainly by mesophanerophytes, by the 10th yr. Vegetation cover and tree size increased throughout the succession; tree density increased for about 7 yr only. Species diversity, the number of all species and of tree species, also increased throughout; species diversity and the total number of species tended to stabilize about the 7th yr due to competitive elimination. Ordination by principal components analysis revealed that mature forest was floristically distinct from fallows up to 10 yr old and that fallows themselves had an age sequence.