Regular Article J F E S Journal of Forest and Environmental Science pISSN: 2288-9744, eISSN: 2288-9752 Journal of Forest and Environmental Science Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 205-211, May, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.7747/JFES.2016.32.2.205 J For Env Sci 32(2), 205-211 205 A n Assesesment of Leaf Chlorophyll Concentration of Afforestation Tree Species in South-Eastern, Nigeria Agbaeze Umazi Udeagha 1,3, * , Simon Alyegba Shomkegh 2 and Koko Sunday Daniel 1 1 Department of Forestry and Natural Environmental Management, University of Uyo, Uyo 520271, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria 2 Department of Social and Environmental Forestry, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi 970211, Benue State, Nigeria 3 Department of Forest Technology, Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure 705101, Jigawa State, Nigeria Abstract Leaf chlorophyll content provides valuable information about physiological status of plants. However, fewer studies have investigated the difference in chlorophyll concentration in leaves of tropical afforestation tree species. Therefore, this study examines the difference in foliar chlorophyll contents of six tropical afforestation tree species namely: Tectona grandis, Pentaclethra macrophylla, Piptademiastrum africanum, Azadirachta indica, Brachystegia eurycoma and Gmelina arborea found in the relict forest in Umudike, South east, Nigeria. A single factor experiment in a completely randomised design in three replicates was employed to analyse the rate of leaf chlorophyll contents. Fisher’s least significant different was used to test for significance in mean difference in foliar chlorophyll contents between tree species at 95% confidence interval using analysis of variance. The results of this study showed a significant difference in foliar chlorophyll concentration between the tree species with Tectona grandis having a higher chlorophyll concentration than other trees this could be as a result of its higher vegetative activity which increases its primary productivity followed by Pentaclethra macrophylla while Azadirachta indica having least the chlorophyll concentration. The study further revealed that other indigenous tree species like Piptademiastrum africanum and Brachystegia eurycoma have higher chlorophyll concentration. Further studies should be carry out to examine factors that have contributed informed the differences in the chlorophyll concentration of these trees species, thus this would broaden the understanding of their physiological status and equally encourage there conservation. Key Words: physiological status, chlorophyll concentration, tree species, tree foliar, environmental stress, productivity Received: July 7, 2015. Revised: October 18, 2015. Accepted: November 26, 2015. Corresponding author: Agbaeze Umazi Udeagha Department of Forest Technology, Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure 705101, Jigawa State, Nigeria Tel: 2349050077802, Fax: 2348066302590, E-mail: aumazi@yahoo.co.uk; uumazi@gmail.com Introduction Chlorophyll is a key indicator of the physiological status of forest canopy (Curran et al. 1990; Curran et al. 1995). However, the chlorophyll content of a forest canopy can be an indicator of such measures of physiological status as photosynthetic capacity, developmental stage, productivity, and stress (Ustin et al. 1988; Curran et al. 1990; Richardson et al. 2002; Khaleghi et al. 2012). Chlorophyll is the green pigment in tree leaves which initiates photosyn- thesis by absorbing energy from sunlight and transfers this energy to other molecules (Lei et al. 1996; Spear 1997; Ekanayake et al. 2004). Thus, this energy is used to syn- thesis carbohydrate from CO2 and water (Khaleghi et al. 2012). Chlorophyll is of two types’ chlorophyll a and chlor- ophyll b which both of them works as photoreceptor in pho-