<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Mountainous ecosystems provide social, economic, and environmental services at different scales. Nonetheless, currently, they have been exposed to environmental degradation risks. This study was conducted to investigate woody plant species diversity and threats to the study forest. Systematic sampling was employed to collect vegetation data from fifty 400 m2 sample plots along five transect lines. Vegetation and the environmental variables were recorded from each plot. Eighty randomly sampled households were selected for socioeconomic data. Descriptive statistics and ranking exercises were employed. The vegetation classification was performed using the R program version 2.15.2. The species diversity, richness, and evenness were computed. The result showed that five plant communities were recognized. A total of 99 woody plants belonging to 87 genera and 50 families were identified, of which 13 % were endemic. The total basal area of the study forest was 3.40 m2ha-1, and the forest was characterized by a bell-shaped population structure identified by poor regeneration and recruitment. With increasing altitude, there was a significant decrease in human impacts, grazing, and the number of plant species. About 90 % of the informants disclosed deforestation as the major threat to forest cover change, whereas 84 % of them recommended forest restoration as a tangible measure. There was a high deforestation rate of the selected woody species (e.g., <italic>Arundinaria alpina</italic>) and high expansion of agriculture at the fringes of the forest. This requires promoting forest land rehabilitation activities, nature tourism, establishing partnerships with communities on the forest management, consolidating village-level institutions and developing livelihood alternatives for communities at the local governments and the community level to restore the degraded forest.
</abstract>

Mountainous ecosystems provide social, economic, and environmental services at different scales. Nonetheless, currently, they have been exposed to environmental degradation risks. This study was conducted to investigate woody plant species diversity and threats to the study forest. Systematic sampling was employed to collect vegetation data from fifty 400 m2 sample plots along five transect lines. Vegetation and the environmental variables were recorded from each plot. Eighty randomly sampled households were selected for socioeconomic data. Descriptive statistics and ranking exercises were employed. The vegetation classification was performed using the R program version 2.15.2. The species diversity, richness, and evenness were computed. The result showed that five plant communities were recognized. A total of 99 woody plants belonging to 87 genera and 50 families were identified, of which 13 % were endemic. The total basal area of the study forest was 3.40 m2ha-1, and the forest was characterized by a bell-shaped population structure identified by poor regeneration and recruitment. With increasing altitude, there was a significant decrease in human impacts, grazing, and the number of plant species. About 90 % of the informants disclosed deforestation as the major threat to forest cover change, whereas 84 % of them recommended forest restoration as a tangible measure. There was a high deforestation rate of the selected woody species (e.g., Arundinaria alpina) and high expansion of agriculture at the fringes of the forest. This requires promoting forest land rehabilitation activities, nature tourism, establishing partnerships with communities on the forest management, consolidating village-level institutions and developing livelihood alternatives for communities at the local governments and the community level to restore the degraded forest.

Ecological Assessment of Woody Plant Diversity and the Associated Threats in Afromontane Forest of Ambericho, Southern Ethiopia

Department of Environmental health Science and Technology

home-based at Kotebe Metropolitan University

Journal of Landscape Ecology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mountainous ecosystems provide social, economic, and environmental services at different scales. Nonetheless, currently, they have been exposed to...

Ecological Assessment of Woody Plant Diversity and the Associated Threats in Afromontane Forest of Ambericho, Southern Ethiopia

Data publikacji: 14 paź 2022

Zakres stron: 102 - 126

Otrzymano: 12 kwi 2022

Przyjęty: 11 sie 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jlecol-2022-0013

Słowa kluczowe
Afromontane Forest, biodiversity, ecological assessment, Ethiopia, woody species

© 2022 Tirebo Tekle et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Ecological Assessment of Woody Plant Diversity and the Associated Threats in Afromontane Forest of Ambericho, Southern Ethiopia

Data publikacji: 14 paź 2022

Zakres stron: 102 - 126

Otrzymano: 12 kwi 2022

Przyjęty: 11 sie 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jlecol-2022-0013

Słowa kluczoweAfromontane Forest, biodiversity, ecological assessment, Ethiopia, woody species

© 2022 Tirebo Tekle et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Słowa kluczowe
Afromontane Forest, biodiversity, ecological assessment, Ethiopia, woody species