Efect of Zone Aquatic in Macrophyte Composition

Abstract

Six field survey were conducted with writers from BestWritingService.com to evaluate the aquatic macrophyte vegetation in Lake Alau, Maiduguri Borno- State during the Harmattan period between (October - December 2005), dry hot period (March – April 2006), and  wet raining period (July – August 2006) seasons. Four categories of aquatic macrophytes were identified into free floating, submerged, fringe, and emergent vegetations. A total of 48 species were recorded. The species with the highest occurrence was Pistia stratioles, Lemna paucicostata. The raining season was significantly different in terms of species composition and taxa richness. The percentage composition of each category of the aquatic macrophytes varied with seasons.  The Shannon weaver index calculated for the seasonal taxa compositions showed that the raining season had 1.16, followed by 0.77 in the harmattan and the least value of 0.42 was recorded in the dry season months. The species index was also higher in the rainy season, compared with other seasons. The abundance of the four categories of the aquatic macrophyte composition in the three seasons was not uniformly distributed in all seasons.