Browsing by Author "Obioh, Gloria I. B."

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    Species Profiles of Some Useful Plants in Omo Biosphere Reserve in Nigeria
    (2006) Obioh, Gloria I. B.; Isichei, Augustine O.
    Ecological ethnobotany was conducted in Omo Biosphere Reserve, Nigeria in order to elucidate the basic ecological and cultural variables needed for the conservation and restoration of some useful utilised in the reserve. Permanent sample plots of 25m and 25m each were laid out randomly in four sites in the reserve. Data on both vegetation and soil in each site were collected by random sampling method. Quantitative Ethnobotany was carried out using the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique. The target species were Carpolobia lutea G. Don, Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii (Stapf) Diels, Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomb ex O'Rorke) Baill., Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv., Sphenocentrum jollyanum Pierre, Spondias mombin L. Tetrapleura tetraptera Taub. and Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich. The species were selected because they are indigenous, non-timber and highly utilised in ethnomedicine and nutrition. A total of 132 woody species in 39 families were identified. Most of the target species were found only in the transition zone in very low densities of about two to five per hectare. Spondias mombin was found only in cultivated areas. The target species tolerate moderately acidic soils; majority flowered in the dry season and fruited during the rainy season. They were harvested from the wild and used in the treatment of many ailments including malaria, yellow fever, worms, cough, infertility, gonorrhea and diabetes. The inclusion of some of the species in conservation and restoration program in the reserve is suggested.
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    Open Access
    Specprof: a Tool for Biological Indexing
    (Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), 2007) Obioh, Gloria I. B.; Isichei, Augustine O.
    The development of a comprehensive information base is one of the most compelling needs in conservation as it can contribute to coordinated conservation efforts. In biodiversity conservation, indexing of organisms is of great importance because it sets the stage for investigating their relationships to other organisms. In view of recent trends in information and communication technology, electronic archiving of available data on the species is needed as a primary step to biodiversity conservation. A species profile (SPECPROF) database, an electronic data archiving, vouchering and retrieval system has been developed to support plant diversity indexing in a wide range of ecosystems. SPECPROF is an application database developed in the Microsoft Windows environment. The fields in SPECPROF are structured using the Microsoft Access 2000 database programme with Visual Basic providing the Graphical User Interface front end. It allows users to input, query and display information available on species. It is a fast and easy conservation tool for use in biological indexing.