A Comparative Analysis of Floral Species Diversity between the Mined and Unmined Quarry Areas in Ebonyi State

The objective of this study was to determine flora species diversity between the mined and unmined quarry sites in Ebonyi State. Essentially, eight quadrats were laid in all in the study areas. Four quadrats were in the Crushed Rock and another four in the Setracto Company. The size of the quadrats was 100m x 100m. These quadrats were laid along a transect in each of these quarry mining sites at a distance of 500m. Floral species (trees/shrubs) were enumerated in each of these quadrats. The Simpson’s Index of diversity which has the form Si = 1 – D where D = Σ(n1/N)2, N1 = some specified importance value for species and N = importance value for all species) was used to measure the diversity of floral species. The result of the study indicated that for the Crushed Rock mined site; plot one had diversity value of 0.764, plot 2 had 0.531 and 0.778 and 0.807 for plots 3 and 4 respectively. In the Crushed Rock unmined site the diversity values for the four sample plots were 0.899, 0.858, 0.876 and 0.867 respectively. For the Setraco mining company, the diversity values for the four sample plots were 0.74, 0.727, 0.511 and 0.612 respectively. In the unmined site in Setraco company, plot one had diversity value of 0.896, plot 2 (0.864), plot 3 (0.886) and finally plot four (0.932). The study generally revealed that the unmined sites in both the Crushed Rock and Setraco companies had diversity values higher than that in the mined site.