Environmental status at Samunge Village (Tanzania) following a sharp increase in visitors

Starting early 2011, people from all over Tanzania, Africa and overseas flocked Samunge Village in northern Tanzania, to drink a cup of Carissa spinarum concoction claimed to treat diseases hitherto known to be incurable by conventional medicine including HIV-AIDS, hypertension and diabetes. The big number of visitors resulted into vivid environmental impacts including trampling on plants and animals, unplanned discarding of drink and food containers, haphazard sanitation undertakings and overall change in panorama. The present study made some quantification on environmental status in the village during the peak visitor days in March 2011. There was widespread trampling and denudation of vegetation up to 200 m around the road leading to the village centre where the medicine was being administered. Small animals were trampled by vehicles and humans. Litter from mineral water and food containers was significantly more concentrated nearer the road than further away, but was spread to over 200 m from the road as was human refuse resulting from sanitary undertakings. The hitherto panorama of alternating green hills and lowlands became bisected by a long chain of different types of vehicles including large and small lorries, large and small buses, Land Cruisers, Land Rovers and saloon cars. There was widespread tree and shrub harvesting for firewood, temporary shelter and medicine. To reduce level of environmental impact the road needed improvement to ease vehicle movements, the number of vehicles and people going to the village for the medicine needed to be regulated and sanitary facilities installed along the road.Key words: Samunge, Medicine, Incurable diseases, Environmental status

Impact of small scale gold mining on soils of the wetland forests in east Usambara, Tanzania

Soil pits in disturbed and natural wetland forests of East Usambara were excavated and soil profile samples collected and analysed for physical and chemical properties. Their physical and chemical characteristics were found to be sharply different from those of the surrounding hills. Differencesincluded lack of A Horizon, water saturation, presence of very high organic matter, very low pH and hence very poor in basic cations, and low microbial activity. Nutrient recycling, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, tended to shift from mineralization to immobilization. Effects of soil disturbance on both physical and chemical characteristics of the soils were also very vivid. The soils disturbed from gold mining possessed an altered soil structure, improper development of soil horizons and removal of organic matter on the surface. Burried A horizons were found in all plots at the disturbed site. Carbon:Nitrogen ratios were significantly higher in the undisturbed forestssuggesting greater capacity in carbon sequestration. Both sites existed in the same general area but while the undisturbed one possessed all histosol (organic soil) characteristics, the disturbed site soils were heterogenous and possessed characteristics associated with mineral soils (inceptisols). The present study suggests that disturbance has led into a reduction in the supply capacity of minerals such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and the low supply of such minerals will inhibit regrowthof the natural vegetation

Effects of prescribed burning on a small mammal community in post oak savannah, Texas

Typescript (photocopy).The response of a community of small mammals to annual prescribed maintenance burning was examined in the post oak savannah vegetational type in Texas. The study was begun in the fall of 1982 before the second of a series of annual winter prescribed burning took place (at the end of February 1983) and terminated in the fall of 1983. The study tested the two hypotheses: i) burning would spatially alter the habitat structure and ii) the change in habitat structure would cause a redistribution of the populations of the small mammals in a manner which explains their habitat requirements. At least six species of small mammals were present on both the burned and unburned plots but only Siqmodon hispidus and Neotoma floridana were abundant and selective enough of habitat to allow appreciable evaluation of the degree and direction of response to change of habitat structure. Burning significantly reduced above-ground shrubby vegetative cover.' This reduction was accompanied by a sharp reduction in the abundance of Neotoma. The burning also reduced vegetative ground cover and, as a consequence the density of Sigmodon remained lower for most of the year following the burn. Neotoma had highest levels of abundance in those vegetative structures which had the highest amounts of shrubby cover and least amounts of grass. The distribution of Sigmodon was the reverse of that of Neotoma. After ground cover, consisting mainly of perennial grasses, was restored in the burned portions of the burned grid, Sigmodon reutilized those portions at a level similar to that recorded pre-burn. Significant shrubby cover was not established on the burned portions and those portions were not utilized by Neotoma during the entire post-burn study period. Methods of assessment of the vegetative structures were the same for burned and unburned grids, and the animals responded similarly to similar vegetative attributes between the grids. Therefore, I conclude that for the period of this study, burning was the proximate factor while resulting vegetative structures were the ultimate factors affecting the distribution of the animals. I further maintain that a system of annual prescribed burning will reduce drastically the abundance of brush and, as a consequence, that of Neotoma. As ground cover decreases and then increases in the course of time following a burn, the burn will maintain a moderate cyclic pattern of abundance for Sigmodon..

Effects of prescribed burning on a small mammal community in post oak savannah, Texas

Typescript (photocopy).The response of a community of small mammals to annual prescribed maintenance burning was examined in the post oak savannah vegetational type in Texas. The study was begun in the fall of 1982 before the second of a series of annual winter prescribed burning took place (at the end of February 1983) and terminated in the fall of 1983. The study tested the two hypotheses: i) burning would spatially alter the habitat structure and ii) the change in habitat structure would cause a redistribution of the populations of the small mammals in a manner which explains their habitat requirements. At least six species of small mammals were present on both the burned and unburned plots but only Siqmodon hispidus and Neotoma floridana were abundant and selective enough of habitat to allow appreciable evaluation of the degree and direction of response to change of habitat structure. Burning significantly reduced above-ground shrubby vegetative cover.' This reduction was accompanied by a sharp reduction in the abundance of Neotoma. The burning also reduced vegetative ground cover and, as a consequence the density of Sigmodon remained lower for most of the year following the burn. Neotoma had highest levels of abundance in those vegetative structures which had the highest amounts of shrubby cover and least amounts of grass. The distribution of Sigmodon was the reverse of that of Neotoma. After ground cover, consisting mainly of perennial grasses, was restored in the burned portions of the burned grid, Sigmodon reutilized those portions at a level similar to that recorded pre-burn. Significant shrubby cover was not established on the burned portions and those portions were not utilized by Neotoma during the entire post-burn study period. Methods of assessment of the vegetative structures were the same for burned and unburned grids, and the animals responded similarly to similar vegetative attributes between the grids. Therefore, I conclude that for the period of this study, burning was the proximate factor while resulting vegetative structures were the ultimate factors affecting the distribution of the animals. I further maintain that a system of annual prescribed burning will reduce drastically the abundance of brush and, as a consequence, that of Neotoma. As ground cover decreases and then increases in the course of time following a burn, the burn will maintain a moderate cyclic pattern of abundance for Sigmodon..

Surveys of small mammals in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Small mammals were sampled in Tarangire National Park between 1994 and 1996. Twenty-six species of small mammals, including four species of Soricomorpha, seven species of Chiroptera and 15 species of Rodentia were documented, with some records being the first for the park. Identifications and natural history data (including a list of associated arthropods) are presented for each of the 26 species. Keywords: Tarangire, mammals, Tanzania, rodents, bats, shrews East African Journal of Natural History Vol. 96 (1) 2007: pp. 47-7