The Origin of Forested Mounds of the Niger Delta: Formed by some Creatures and Factors, - including some previously unknown facts and implications of the Features

Egho, Verity

ISBN 10: 1694740366 / ISBN 13: 9781694740366

Published by Independently published, 2019

About this Item

105 pages. 8.50x5.50x0.25 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # zk1694740366

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Origin of Forested Mounds of the Niger Delta: Formed by some Creatures and Factors, - including some previously unknown facts and implications of the Features
• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1694740366
• ISBN 13: 9781694740366
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.19 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

A NATURAL HISTORY OF A STRANGE FOREST TYPE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION, AND SOME IMPLICATIONS OF FINDINGS CONCERNING THE FOREST TYPEThere is a strange forest type in the Niger Delta, characterized by presence of forested mounds of earth separated by un-forested network of trenches which are flooded during rainy season. Some of the mounds are small strips of earth while others are large, with some as high as 8 feet from trench floor area, with large platform-like tops. The mounds are of clayey soil earth. The ecosystem of the forest type is unique; in rainy season it has aquatic area (the trenches) and dry land (the forested mounds) within reach for amphibious creatures as they move around in the forest type without returning in one direction for land. Biodiversity of the forest type is rich.In dry season, the trenches are dry and the ecosystem becomes a large terrestrial one with empty un-forested trenches separating forested mounds. Trench areas become bare like a road network in an entire forest through which creatures can move with ease. In the terrain, the mounds become like obstacles that increase the chances of survival of prey against predators. What is strange about the forest type? The mounds usually of clayey earth (not of rock) seem to stand forever against operating forces of erosion in the forest area. Heavy rains in rainy season of the region are usually strong enough to gradually wear down any standing pile of earth; yet the mounds evidently persist for decades and centuries. Secondly, the trenches characteristically do not support forestation, though they stay ‘dry’ (without surface water) and moist for at least five months in a year. This gives the picture that without the high standing mounds of earth that are randomly scattered in the strange forest landscape (or if all the mounds were removed and everywhere in the forest type becomes like the trench areas), the vast total area of land occupied by the forest type in the entire region would have no forests (just like the trench areas). This book is on the Natural History of the forest type in the Niger Delta. It also features details of a previously unpublished study of the forest type in the Niger Delta (a study that took place between 1992 and 1997, followed by further observations and photo-shots of different aspects of the forest type till 2013). Findings show that the forests are not a permanent forest-type. They will all naturally cease to be as they are today in decades’ or centuries’ time. The forest type areas are discovered to be low-lying lands changing (transiting) from bare un-forested ancient seasonally flooded clayey soil marshland status to become a no-longer-flooded raised land area (raised above usual maximum flood levels) that thus supports forestation.Raised earth? Yes! In the Niger Delta, some species of swamp-earth-dwelling earthworms (see pictures in the book) found their way into usually un-forested ancient marshlands decades or centuries ago. For reason of a particular habit in their way of life (pointed out in the book), their casts started accumulating seasonally (when surface water is available). Casts accumulated over decades or centuries are the mounds we see in the Niger Delta. A single cast on a moist floor of an un-forested ancient marshland was the origin of a mound. A single cast on a moist marshland today is the beginning of a new mound (or actually the smallest mound). Dropping of more casts on a previous single cast by the worms lead to gradual increase of cast body and this eventually becomes a large mound. Terrestrial vegetation subsequently establish on the mounds (which are high above flood waters).. There are implications, including indicators of presence of crude oil depositsThe language of the book is made a little less scientific for general readers to understand. It is still presented in a way to be appropriately educative on the forest type in the Niger Delta for those in relevant fields of science.