Abstract
In Ethiopia, forests have been widespread in diverse agro-ecologies of the country and known to provide various products and ecosystem services especially for smallholder farmers. However few studies have been made on the effects of forest management on woody biomass, soil organic carbon, and woody species diversity in different regions of Ethiopia.
There is no such study at Zege Natural Forest as well. The overall objective of this study was to identify the effect of forest management on woody biomass, soil organic carbon, and woody species diversity of Zege natural forest. 62 Sample plots were laid along line transects in which sample plots of 20m×20m were used for data collection. A systematic sampling method was conducted to estimate carbon stock. The data was collected from the field by measuring plants with a DBH of ≥ 5 cm and data were analyzed for species diversity. The carbon stock of each plant was analyzed by using allometric equations. The soil samples (0 -20 cm and 20 -40 cm) were collected. Accordingly, the total woody species recorded in the wood-based forest 58 and coffee-based forest 47. The Shannon diversity index, Simpson’s diversity, and evenness of wood-based and coffee-based forest were (H=3.74, D=2.85, and E=0.15) and (H=2.85, D=0.75, and E=0.11) respectively. From this study, the mean total carbon stock of the Zege forest was 237.5±40.1t/ha, of which the above and belowground carbon, litter carbon, and soil organic carbon. The one-way ANOVA showed that there is a significant difference in carbon between coffee-based and wood-based forests. The highest above ground and soil carbon stock were found in the wood-based forest while the least stock was found in a coffee-based forest. This implies that forests store a high amount of carbon, which can play an important role in climate change mitigation. Finally, data of the current study can be used as a baseline to make inferences about the effect of forest management on woody biomass, soil organic carbon, and woody species diversity.
Keywords: Aboveground biomass carbon, allometric equation, Basal area, Carbon stock, Coffee based forest.
