The survey of the trends in aquatic ecosystem monitoring in Akwa Ibom State was carried out to establish the state of evaluation of the rivers and any restoration and management projects in Nigerian systems. Data for this survey were obtained from journal articles of individual researchers in universities and research institutes that worked on rivers within Akwa Ibom State and obtained from a web search within a period of 2 weeks. A total of 66 journal articles were obtained dating from 1991 to 2014.
Results/Conclusions
A total of 27 articles were obtained from 2001 to 2010 (17.82%) and 17.82% from 2011 -2014. Among the parameters studied, water quality and physico-chemical parameters contributed 14.52% of the studies, while restoration of stream ecosystem integrity was only 0.66%. Assessment of the different aspects of stream biota, apart from fish (plankton, microbial and macro invertebrates) contributed 7.92% of the research and fish-related studies were 13.20%. In view of the rivers surveyed, Ikpa River and its tributaries which have the closest proximity to a university made up 11.88% of the total studies. This survey indicates the retrograde state of aquatic ecosystem monitoring in Nigeria, the absence of restoration and management projects and the lack of involvement of appropriate authorities and policy makers in environmental research.