Structural characteristics of the moist montane forests in Southwest Ethiopia
2004
Mateos Ersado | Yoseph Assefa
The vertical and horizontal structure of the moist montane forest vegetation in south west Ethiopia was studied. Data from the woody plant inventory conducted in nine representative areas was analyzed, using different methodologies, including excel and SPSS Statistical soft ware, as well as, vertical and horizontal structure diagrams. Analysis of the height data, based on stems10 cm, showed significant differences on the upper, the middle and lower stories of all forests. From the bottom, to the top of the forest canopy, basal area increased while the density of stems/ha, as well as, the number of species decreased. Similarly, diameter-class distribution of the density of stems drastically decreased, beginning from the 'II' class onwards. By contrast, the basal area distribution showed an irregular pattern, as well as, marked variation among different forests. The findings indicate that forests occurring on the northern parts are shorter in their stature compared to their southern equivalents. While the floristic heterogeneity and the irregularity of the horizontal distribution of some of the tree species increases in the east _ west direction. It was also indicated that four out of the nine forests, included in this analysis, showed a low level of dominance by the upper canopy trees in terms of variety of species, the number of stems and basal area/ha, thus possibly suggesting that these forests had been subjected to intensive selective logging pressure, and consequently, they represent a secondary forest formation of different successional stages.
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This bibliographic record has been provided by Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research