Studies on the pattern of occurrence of soil seed bank of monodora myristica in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study on soil seed bank of three stands of Monodora myristica was carried out in Ohiya, Umuahia South of Abia State, Nigeria. Three soil depth of 0-5cm, 5-10cm and 10-20cm (control) were dug at four cardinal points from the stands at a distance of 0m, 3m and 7m (i.e. control) respectively. The total number of seeds deposited at the 0- 5cm depth at 0m (8.583), 3m (14.250) and 7m (3.000) were significantly higher than that deposited within the 5-10cm (3.333, 5.917 and 0.833) and the 10-20cm depth (0.250, 1.750 and 0.000) respectively. Over 70% of the seeds of Monodora myristica occurred within the 0-5cm depth, 25% were deposited at the 5-10cm depth while the control had about 5% seed occurrence. The highest number of seeds occurred at the distance of 3m while the control had the lowest. The highest level of interaction between distance and soil depth occurred within the 0-5cm and 3m. The pattern of seed occurrence in the soil may be attributed to the size and shape of the seeds of this tree specie.