Woody Plants Diversity, Populations Structure, Carbon Stock and Microbial Dynamics in Gara Duro Natural Forest, West Arsi Zone, Ormia, Ethiopia.
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Date
2020-07-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Forest and soil carbon storage paly a sginficant role in climate change mitigation. Especial woody species are more importantly store considerable carbon. However in Gara Duro natural forest there was lackof information regarding wood species diversity, their carbon stock, under species soil carbonstock and their impacts on microbial population. This study aimed at documenting woody plants diversity, populations structre, and assessing carbon stock and effect of forest degradation on microbial dynamics in Gara Duro natural forest in Nagelle Arsi District, West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. A systematic sampling method was used to establish sampling plots along altitude. Woody species and soil data were collected from 47 plots of 20 m × 20 m (400 m2). All woody plant species encountered in each sample quadrats were recorded and their Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) and height were measured. The carbon stock of trees was estimated using an allometric equation. One way analysis of variance was used to test data of carbon in different pools, variations in soil microbial dynamics and soil chemical properties at P=0.05.The results showed that there were 40 woody plants in the natural forest belonging to 38 genera and 31 families. The most frequent species were Maesa lanceolata, Rubus apetalus, Croton macrostachyus, and Podocarpus falcatus. Maytenus addat, Maesa. lanceolata, Podocarphus falcatus, Croton. macrostachyus and Pittosporum viridiflorum had the highest importance value index (IVI), whereas Ficus vasta, Brucea antidysenterica, Schefflera abyssinica, Hypericum revolutum and Erica arborea were species with lowest IVI. Based on the evaluation of the diameter class, overall structure of woody species structure showed an inverted J-shaped curve.The mean carbon stock of Gara Duro natural forest was found to be 248. tons carbon ha-1, 107.20, 21.44, 2.54 and 116.04 carbon ton ha-1 were stored in the above ground, below ground, litter and as soil organic carbon, respectively. There was a significant diference between different carbon pools. The present study revealed that there was significant (p ≤ 0.05) variation in soil bacterial and fungal population of protected and nonprotected areas of Gara Duro natural forest.The soil chemical properties showed significant variation in protected and non protected areas of Gara duro forest (p ≤ 0.05). The mean pH value in protected forest was 6.57(1:2.5) while in the nonprotected forest it was 5.95 (1:2.5). Similarily, the Organic Carbon (OC) in protected forest was 1.83% and that of nonprotected forest was 1.20%. Total nitrogen (TN) content was significantly different between protected and non protected forest with 0.525% and 0.45%, respectively. Gara Duro forest was found to be important for plant and microbial biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and diverse ecosystem services to the local communities. Designing and implementing in-situ conservation of the forest with priority to identified plant species and promoting ecosystem services through forest management system was recommended.
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Carbon Stock, Forest Degradetion, Microbial Dynamics and Wood Plant Species