Soil Seed Bank Study And Natural Regeneration Assessment Of Woody Species In Dodola Dry Afromontane Forest Bale Mountains By Eyob Tenkir

Soil seed bank status and natural regeneration of woody species of Dry Afromontane Forest of Dodola was studied fromrnDecember 2004 to July 2005. The objective of the study is to assess the composition, density of seeds in the soil andrnnaturally regenerating woody species of the Dodola forest. A total of hundred quadrates were established in the selectedrnten habitat types of Dodola forest. The quadrate size (20 m x 20 m) for trees and shrubs with height greater than 4 m, 5 mrnX 5 m for sapling, 2 m X 2 m seedlings, 1m X1 m germinates, and 2 m X 2 m for the herbaceous layer laid down in thernmain quadrats to examine similarity between standing vegetation and soil seed bank flora as well as natural regenerationrnof the study site. Soil samples were collected from the main quadrats measuring 15 cm X 15 cm and three separate soilrnlayers each 3 cm thick (0 – 3 cm, 3 – 6 cm, 6 cm – 9 cm). Results from soil seed bank study show that a total of 56 plantrnspecies were obtained from the seed bank, Juniperus procera have the highest viable seed density than the remaining treernspecies. There is significant variation in seed density between habitat typesrn(P< 0.024). The highest seed bank density was recorded in the first sampling layer (0 -3 cm) of nine habitat types.rnSimilarity between standing vegetation and soil seed bank show that there was negligibly low similarity (JCS = 0.109 –rn0.33). Analysis of natural regeneration of woody species shows that a total of 31 woody species and 41,092rnindividualsha were recorded. Highest seed density of naturally regenerating woody plants and highest number of speciesrnwere recorded inrnErica – Hypericum and Riverine habitat types respectively. Myrsine africana is a species with highest number of plantrnfrom naturally regenerating woody species. The highest class distribution of Hagenia abyssinica dose not haverngerminant and seedling population. From the ten habitat types Farmland and Grassland habitat types show lower and nornnaturally regenerating individuals respectively. These indicate that reliance on the soil seed banks fro the recovery ofrnmost native woody flora may be difficult in Grassland and Farmland habitat types of Dodola forest.

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