Lake Barombi Koto affluent, Cameroon

Environment

Environment

Human settlements

Human settlements

Compacted

Surrounding area

The Tung Nsuia and Tung Nsuria streams, each about 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) wide and 0.3 m (1 ft 0 in) deep near their mouth, are the only inflows into the Lake Barombi Koto, and they dry out in dry season.

The only outflow is Nkundung-Kotto stream, a tributary of the Meme River, which dries out or greatly reduced in dry season.

Lake Kotto is a shallow lake, in most places less than 6m deep, and about 1200m across. The steep walls of the volcanic crater wall id forested, but most of it is cultivated alnd where cocoa, cassavaand plantains are grown.

Around the southern and western shores of the lake are the houses of Nigerian immigrants, and the island is denseluy populated by Barombis, a fishing tribe. In most places the lake shore is rocky and overhung with dense vegetation. The bottom is sandy in some of more open, shallow areas, which are used as canoe beaches and as trasmition sites for schistosomiasis.

Underwater landscape

Water of the these creeks is soft, lesser than 100 µS, temp around 26°C, pH close to 7. No water plants, just layers of leaves, branches, roots.

Fishes:

• Coptodon kottae
• Chromidotilapia guentheri
• Hemichromis fasciatus
• Pelmatolapia mariae
• Sarotherodon galilaeus
• Clarias sp.
• Enteromius callipterus
• Aphyosemion bivittatum
• Epiplatys sexfasciatus
• Fundulopanchax oeseri
• Procatopus similis
• Barbus callipterus

Plant:

• None, only riparian plant.

Mollusks:

• Bulinus snails, including the near-endemic Bulinus camerunensis

Turtles and the aquatic frog Xenopus tropicalis are common in the lake.

Threats to ecology

Cameroon is endowed with many freshwater lakes and rivers but, because of increasing anthropogenic activities, most of these water bodies are gradually being degraded. Lake Barombi Kotto is one of the volcanic crater lakes in Cameroon that serves as a prime source of drinking water for the Barombi Kotto community.

The endemics are threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities, and “turning” of the lake’s water because of deforestation of the surroundings (this may allow more wind, and the lake is stratified with oxygen-poor lower levels). They are potentially also threatened by large emissions of carbon dioxide from the lake’s bottom (compare Lake Nyos), although Barombi Koto is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas.

Bibliography

• Cichlidae by Stiassny, M.L.J.; A. Lamboj; D. De Weirdt; G.G. Teugels
  
• The fresh and brackish water fishes of Lower Guinea, West-Central Africa / Poissons d’Eaux Douces et Saumâtres de Basee Guinée, Ouest de l’Afrique Centrale. Vol. 2. Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale. pp. 269–403. by M.L.J. Stiassny; G.G Teugels; C.D. Hopkins (eds.)
  

Sitography

Comment by the expert