Diversity of vegetation communities in relation to soil heavy metal content at the Shinkolobwe copper/cobalt/uranium mineralization, Upper Shaba, Zaire
1994
Malaisse, F. (Faculte des Scieces Agronomiques de Gembloux (Belgium). Lab. d'Ecologie) | Brooks, R.E. | Baker, A.J.M.
A study was made of plant communities and soils of the Shinkolobwe copper/cobalt/uranium mineralized outcrop in Shaba Province, Zaire. The site has not been accessible until recently because of restrictions based on strategic and military considerations since the discovery of radioactive minerals at this site in 1915. Some 11 different plant communities were identified, all controlled by the nature of the substratum and its chemical composition. The site is remarkable in that it includes in a single locality (Milestone XIII) most of the different plant communities found on other sites in Shaba. An ecotone with its belt of chlorotic Uapaca robynsii is particularly well defined. The site contains an endemic fern, Actiniopteris sp. nov., found elsewhere only in the Mindingi area (Mirungwe hill). From the eleven phytogeochemical transects of Shaban copper/cobalt anomalies already published and from other unpublished field observations, a synthesis is provided, completing the noteworthy studies of Duvigneaud and Denaeyer De Smet (1958-1963).
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