RELATING UPROOTING RESISTANCE TO STEM BASAL DIAMETERS OF PLANTS FOR EROSION MITIGATION

The strength with which a plant resists uprooting from erosion is influenced by a number of morphological traits including the stem basal diameter. The objective of this study is carry out in-situ lateral uprooting tests for various plant species and develop models that relate uprooting resistance to plant stem basal diameter. The study area is the erosion prone land of Nguzu Edda in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Several lateral uprooting tests were carried out to determine the uprooting forces for twelve plant species. The stem basal diameters of the plants were also measured. Linear, quadratic and cubic regression models were used in data analysis. The results showed that maximum uprooting force has a linear relationship with stem basal diameter with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.900 to 0.999. The r2 value was 0.900 for Saccharum officinarum, 0.975 for chrysopogon zizanioides and 0.980 for paspalum notatum while other plants studied had r2 values ranging from 0.996 to 0.999. The p-values for all species using linear regression were less than 0.05 hence the model results are significant at 95% confidence level for all plant species studied