Dataset Information

Plant diversity and community analysis of Sele-Nono forest, Southwest Ethiopia: implication for conservation planning.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studying the floristic diversity of a certain forest is a basic aspect of the design and management of forest vegetation; and consequently this study focused on the plant diversity and community analysis of the Sele-Nono forest. For the current study, plants were sampled from 90 plots using a stratified random sampling technique along the established strata of the study forest. In all the plots, both floristic and environmental data that were relevant to the study were collected following the state of the art. Based on the collected data, the community types, ordination, floristic diversity, and threats to the forest were analyzed using R-package and SPSS software.

Results

Cluster analysis produced seven distinct community types which significantly differed among themselves (Cophentic correlation coefficient = 0.785, P < 0.001) of which community types 2 and 6 were relatively poor; whereas communities 1 and 4 were rich in terms of their species richness and diversity. In addition, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) suggests that a number of environmental factors such as altitude and slope (topographic factor), OM and N (edaphic factors) and disturbance were the main drivers for the current distribution of plant species and disparity in plant community composition in Sele-Nono forest. Moreover, the study revealed high beta diversity ([Formula: see text] >12) of plant species at the landscape level (i.e., throughout the study forest). Deforestation for agricultural land expansion and degradation through selective logging are the main threats to the Sele-Nono forest.

Conclusions

The present study revealed that the Sele-Nono forest is a large and heterogenous forest at the landscape level (150, 325.27 ha; [Formula: see text] >12). Moreover, it is one of the richest and diverse forest ecosystems in terms of plant biodiversity, and it could qualify to be labeled as a keystone ecosystem. However, currently it is exposed to a variety of threats. We recommend the forest to be developed into a biosphere reserve. We also recommend the prioritization of areas belonging to community types 2 and 6 of the forest for any possible conservation actions so as to maximize species richness and diversity of the native plants of the area.

SUBMITTER: Kefalew A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9294133 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The degradation of soil and water resources has underpinned the chronic household level food insecurity in Ethiopia. The Purpose of the study was to assess the perceived effectiveness of soil and water conservation practices in the study area, and recommend sustainable planning, and management measures. The data for this study were collected via household interview schedule, focus group discussion, key informant interview, and personal observation. Data collected through household survey questionnaire were analysed with the help of simple ddescriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, percentages, frequencies, and cross tabulation). Chi-squire test was used to see the difference between nominal/categorical dependent variable and the nominal independent variable. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis, and narration. Over cultivation, deforestation, overgrazing, runoff from upslope and the easily erodible nature of the soil, poor agricultural practices, absence of appropriate soil conservation practices, over Population, intensity of rainfall, and cultivation of steep slopes and marginal lands without adequate erosion-controlling measures were identified as causes of soil erosion in the study area. The major structural soil and water conservation measures identified in the study area include: waterway, contour ploughing, cultural ditches, mulching, fallowing, soil bund, agroforestry, tree planting, area closure, cut off-drains, and wood check dams. The major challenges for implementing structural soil and water conservation measures identified in the study area include: physical soil conservation structures were not supported by biological works, lack of regular maintenance of soil and water conservation structures, and absence of care for trees planted on physical structures. A combination of structural and non-structural soil and water conservation measures should be practiced in the study area to achieve the sustainable development goals in agricultural development sector.

Project description:The boreal region is facing intensifying resource extraction pressure, but the lack of comprehensive biodiversity data makes operative forest conservation planning difficult. Many countries have implemented forest inventory schemes and are making extensive and up-to-date forest databases increasingly available. Some of the more detailed inventory databases, however, remain proprietary and unavailable for conservation planning. Here, we investigate how well different open and proprietary forest inventory data sets suit the purpose of conservation prioritization in Finland. We also explore how much priorities are affected by using the less accurate but open data. First, we construct a set of indices for forest conservation value based on quantitative information commonly found in forest inventories. These include the maturity of the trees, tree species composition, and site fertility. Secondly, using these data and accounting for connectivity between forest types, we investigate the patterns in conservation priority. For prioritization, we use Zonation, a method and software for spatial conservation prioritization. We then validate the prioritizations by comparing them to known areas of high conservation value. We show that the overall priority patterns are relatively consistent across different data sources and analysis options. However, the coarse data cannot be used to accurately identify the high-priority areas as it misses much of the fine-scale variation in forest structures. We conclude that, while inventory data collected for forestry purposes may be useful for forest conservation purposes, it needs to be detailed enough to be able to account for more fine-scaled features of high conservation value. These results underline the importance of making detailed inventory data publicly available. Finally, we discuss how the prioritization methodology we used could be integrated into operative forest management, especially in countries in the boreal zone.