The flora diversity and carbon stock of a disturbed tropical coastal National Park in the Littoral Region of Cameroon

In Cameroon, forest ecosystems are undergoing degradation due to anthropogenic activities, thus the need to raise awareness and contribute to the conservation of its biodiversity. This study aimed to assess the flora diversity and carbon stock of a disturbed coastal tropical forest in the Douala-Edda National Park.  Data was collected after delimitation, enumeration of the plots which made it possible to have an inventory of trees ≥ 2 cm in diameter. The study was carried out on three sites of different levels of disturbance of one hectare each: the Highly Disturbed Forests (HDF), Medium Disturbed Forests (MDF) and Low Disturbed Forests (LDF). Each hectare was divided into 25 quadrats of 20× 20 m and further to 400 subquadrate of 5 × 5 m to determine the composition, structure and the Carbon stock. There were 4,696 individuals classified into 160 species including 41 genera belonging to 86 families. The most important species were: Klainedoxa gabonensis Pierre. (27.19%) in the HDF; Baphia capparidifolia Baker. [41.36%] in the MDF; and Mitragyna stipulosa (DC.) Kuntze (41.05%) in the LDF. The most important families were: Oleaceae for HDF and Fabaceae for MDF and LDF. The Fischer α index indicated that the HDF was more diversified and the LDF was weakly diversified. Basal area was highest in the HDF and least in the MDF. The structure of these sites showed an inverted J curve. The above and below-ground biomasses were higher in the HDF and least in the MDF, but the reverse was true for the soil carbon stock. The litter carbon stock was almost equal to that of the Above ground biomass. The total carbon stock across all sites was estimated at 8,76 TC/ha of Carbon. The present results thus indicate the importance of forest management in maintaining and restoring plant cover in Coastal ecosystems.