Correlational analysis of the trend of vegetation abundance and temperature (1982-2020) in the ecological zones of Bayelsa and Rivers States, Niger Delta, Nigeria

The study examined the correlational analysis of the trend of vegetation abundance and temperature (1982-2020) in the ecological zones of Bayelsa and Rivers State, Niger Delta, Nigeria. The study made use of MODIS and Landsat imageries for the extraction of the vegetation health values while the temperature data from NIMET were extrapolated using Inverse Distance Weighted from which the unsampled places were provided with the data. Both the descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for study. Findings revealed generally that air temperature had the maximum of 31.39°C from 1982 to 2020 while vegetation abundance was higher in 1982, 1985, 1990. The maximum air temperature in the rainforest was 31.37°C, freshwater swamp was 31.40°C and mangrove was 31.36°C. The mean vegetation abundance was higher in the 3 ecological zones in 1982 while it reduced in 2020 and the mean vegetation abundance was 0.5085 in the entire study area. Air temperature continued to increase over the years at the rate of 0.1684°C and the time (years) contributed 31.33% to the variation. The analysis also shows that air temperature increased at the rate of 0.1837°C over the years under mangrove ecological zone and the time contributed 36.35% to the variation of air temperature. Under the rainforest, it is discovered that vegetation abundance continued to decrease at the rate of 0.0348 mm over the years and 83.16% of the variation could be accountable for by the years. The air temperature negatively and significantly correlated with vegetation abundance (r=-0.522; p<0.05). The study concluded that the vegetation abundance under the rainforest was the highest and there is a significant variation in the vegetation abundance across the rainforest, freshwater swamp and mangrove. Also, the air temperature in fresh water swamp was highest and followed by that of the rainforest. It is thus recommended that all activities that could contribute to the rise in the air temperature which can lead to global warming such as illegal crude oil refining should be absolutely abolished. Climate change campaign should be continually encouraged.