Estimation of floral diversity and potential effects of introduced species at the nature preserve, university of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya.

Author(s): Ramesh F.*, Kirui J.

Abstract

Biological diversity (Biodiversity) is the variety of life on earth. Measurement of biodiversity is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time. It is also one of the most urgent because, we must address the problem soon or we will lose the chance forever since many species are becoming extinct without trace. Introduced species is among the factors that cause native species to go extinct. Biodiversity is normally considered at the species level, and that the species diversity of an area is a measure of both the number of species present and their relative abundance. In this study trees and shrubs were only considered. The objectives of the study was to determine the number of species of trees and shrubs and to compare the relative abundance of introduced species with the total floral biodiversity at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (UEAB) nature preserve. The purpose was to develop an inventory of trees and shrubs and to create a case for the potential effect of introduced species to native species and eventual loss of biodiversity. The study was conducted over a period of five weeks with sampling done twice every week. Data was collected by the Belt transect method and analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results indicated that nature preserve is rich in species diversity and native species diversity is lower compared to the relative abundance of introduced species.

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