Forest Structure Carbon Stocks And Leaf Litter Decomposition Of Two Selected Afromontane Forests In The Western Escarpment Of Central Rift Valley And The Gibe Watershed Ethiopia

The Afromontane forests of Ethiopia have been under a serious degradation threat.rnUnderstanding forest structure, floristic compositions and their important roles inrnproviding ecosystem functions like climate change mitigation through carbonrnsequestration and nutrient flow dynamics are important in targeting sustainable forestrnmanagement strategies. Therefore, the major objectives of this study were to determine; i/rnforest structure, plant community composition in relation to environmental factors andrncarbon stocks of Biteyu forest and ii/ quantifying forest structure, carbon stocks, litterfallrnand leaf litter decomposition dynamics, and nutrient release patterns from the Boter-rnBecho forest. Systematic sampling technique was employed for vegetation andrnenvironmental data collection. Thirty plots of 900 m2 and 71 plots of the same quadratrnsize were selected from the Biteyu and Boter-Becho forests, respectively. Total carbonrnstocks (t ha-1) were estimated from aboveground biomass, belowground bimass, soil andrnforest litter carbon pools. The appropriate allometric models were applied forrnaboveground and belowground biomass estimations. To determine litterfall dynamics inrnBoter-Becho forest, two sites of the forest namely, low disturbed (LD) and high disturbedrn(HD) were selected subjectively using field observations. A total of 20 litter traps, ten forrneach site were deployed. Two hundred forty collections were made from 4th March 2014rnto 3rd February 2015, and monthly collections were oven dried at 80 0C for 24 hrs tornconstant weight. Similarly, the decomposition rate of leaf litter in Boter-Becho forest wasrninvestigated using the first order negative exponential decay equation. Different datarnanalyses techniques were employed using R statistical software. The findings showed 190rnplant species distributed among 154 genera and 73 families in Biteyu forest. Moreover,rnaltitude and slope strongly affect the community structure of Biteyu forest. The estimatesrnof total carbon stock in Biteyu and Boter-Becho forests was 166 ± 16.4 and 393 ± 24 t ha-rn,1 respectively. On the other hand, the amount of total litterfall estimated in Boter-Bechornforest was 8.7 t ha- l yr-1. At the end of one year, 66.02% and 66.72% of the leaf litter wasrndecomposed in LD and HD sites, respectively. Consequently, the annual decompositionrnrate constant measured for Boter-Becho forest was 1.405 year-1(the average of the twornsites). With regard to carbon and nutrient release in the Boter-Becho forest, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in their mean concentration remaining except K betweenrntwo sites. Similarly, no strong relationships were observed between initial leaf litterrnchemistry and C, N, P concentration (P > 0.05) released during the decomposition inrnboth sites. There was high anthropogenic effect and high dependence of the localrncommunity in Biteyu forest so that forest conservation and restoration measures shouldrnbe sought. Moreover, the variation in rainfall and temperature are responsible forrncontrolling litterfall production, rate of litter decomposition, C and nutrient releasernpattern in the Boter-Becho forest. Therefore, the interventions, which reduce the climaternchange effect, would be very important in the maintenance of forest ecosystemrnfunctioning.rnKey-words/phrases: Biteyu-forest, Boter-Becho forest, Carbon stocks, forestrndisturbance, leaf litter decomposition, Litterfall, Nutrient Release

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism