ABC Matandwe Forest Reserve Vegetation Survey
Citation
Mwafongo E (2022). ABC Matandwe Forest Reserve Vegetation Survey. Version 1.2. National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/hf7ryp accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-12.Description
Matandwe FR was gazetted in 1931 and is located in Nsanje district in the Rift Valley scarp zone, comprising a range of hills including Mulaka hills in the north and Natundu Hills in the south. In the NW the FR is bordered by Mwabvi Game Reserve. The FR extends from approximately south of Bangula. The soils are lithosols The vegetation is open canopy woodland of hills and scarps dominated by Brachystegia species, especially B. boehmii, and a degraded form of Uapaca kirkiana.
The area of the FR is estimated to be 262.05 km2; however, it has been encroached and excised several times. Accessibility in the FR is difficult due to rugged terrain; there is only one earth road branching off the Bangula-Nsanjebitumised road leading to Chididi Mission.
Purpose
National Herbarium is a botanical institution whose objective is to carry out plant inventories from all the areas in Malawi. Since most forest reserves are at risk because of over exploitation, the prime responsibility of the institution is to document the species that are found in these forest reserves and asses the degree of threat of the species. most datasets are in print format and it is through the project"Africa Biodiversity Challenge" that these datasets are being mobilized and converted to Darwin Core format and published at GBIF.
Sampling Description
Study Extent
Matandwe FR was gazetted in 1931; it is located in Nsanje district in the Rift Valley scarp zone, comprising a range of hills including Mulaka hills in the north and Natundu Hills in the south. In the NW the FR is bordered by Mwabvi Game Reserve. The FR extends from approximately 16o37’S just south of Bangula to 16o55’S along MalindSampling
Chididi road cutting through a section of the FR was used as a base for establishing transects and quadrats. Five transects and a total of twelve quadrats (20 x 50 m) were established. Transect and quadrat positions were georeferenced using a GPS. Quadrats were spaced 250m apart. In each quadrat a general list of all plants was done. For tree species DBH and tree height were recorded on a data forms.Method steps
- Coordinate information was originally in Degrees minutes and seconds and were translated to decimal, degrees and seconds using a web based software http://www.rcn.montana.edu/resources/converter.aspx
Additional info
Please note that the OccurenceID has a suffix "MTM" which represents the three individuals who collected the data in the field and they are; Mwanyambo, M., Thera,M. and Mpalika, D.Taxonomic Coverages
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Liliopsidarank: class
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Magnoliopsidarank: class
Geographic Coverages
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
Elizabeth Mwafongooriginator
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +265 999746432
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Mwafongo
metadata author
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +265 999746432
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Mwafongo
publisher
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +265 999746432
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Donald Mpalika
point of contact
position: IT officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +2651525388
email: dmpalika@yahoo.co.uk
Montfort Mwanyambo
administrative point of contact
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +265 999089169
email: mlmwany@gmail.com
Donald Mpalika
administrative point of contact
position: IT officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
email: dmpalika@yahoo.co.uk