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Soil mineralogical and nutrient characteristics of forest islands and surrounding ecosystem types in West Africa suggest anthropogenic soil improvement

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Abstract

Aims

Ecosystem changes in the mesic savannas of West Africa are resulting in the formation of patches of ‘forest islands’ around local communities in an otherwise open savanna landscape. There have been conflicting reports on the origin of these forest islands with a very limited understanding of their biogeochemistry. This study evaluated the soil mineralogical and chemical characteristics of forest islands and their surrounding ecosystems comprising croplands and open savannas in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria to provide information on the processes leading to the formation of forest islands.

Methods

Soil mineralogy was determined using X-ray diffractometry (XRD) while the soil nutrients were analysed with ICP-OES and the other soil chemical properties were determined using standard conventional methodologies.

Results

Overall, we found that quartz, kaolinite with significant quantities of 2:1 silicate minerals dominated the soil matrix irrespective of land use type. The minerals identified in most of the locations were independent of land use type. This suggests that the forest island formation is not directly related to soil mineralogy. Forest islands showed differences in soil nutrient contents, being richer in exchangeable potassium and dibasic cations than their surrounding savannas and agricultural fields. This superior fertility status of the soils could contribute to the luxuriant growth of the vegetation leading to the development of forest island. The soil nutrient characteristics of the ecosystem types reflect the land use practices with the forest island having higher nutrient and organic carbon contents.

Conclusions

The study provided insight into how human-originated soil nutrient enhancement has induced forest island establishment in open savanna landscapes.

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Data Availability

Data is available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the funding provided by the Royal Society-FCDO Africa Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI) for the execution of this study. We appreciate the contributions of our late supervisor and colleague Dr. Korojouma Ouattara for his technical and moral support during the study. We thank the members of the communities where this study was conducted for their cooperation and assistance during the fieldwork. The efforts of all staff and students of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta who assisted during the laboratory work are fully appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Headquarters Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Samuel A. Mesele

  2. Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Abeokuta, Nigeria

    Samuel A. Mesele, Jamiu O. Azeez & Godwin A. Ajiboye

  3. Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

    Caleb Melenya & Vincent Logah

  4. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Páter Károly U. 1, Gödöllő, 2100, Hungary

    Caleb Melenya

  5. Institut de L’Environnement Et de Recherches Agricoles, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    Amelie Bougma & Halidou Compaore

  6. Earth Science Department, Natural History Museum, London, UK

    William Dubbin

  7. Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group, Wageningen University, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Elmar M. Veenendaal

  8. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK

    Jonathan Lloyd

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  1. Samuel A. Mesele
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  2. Caleb Melenya
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Correspondence to Samuel A. Mesele.

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Mesele, S.A., Melenya, C., Bougma, A. et al. Soil mineralogical and nutrient characteristics of forest islands and surrounding ecosystem types in West Africa suggest anthropogenic soil improvement. Plant Soil 495, 157–175 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06042-2

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