Woody Species Diversity and Above ground carbon storage potential in different land use types of Alle District, Iluababor Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Woody species diversity and carbon stock estimation of land use types have critical role for the successful implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. The current study assessed the differences in woody species diversity, above ground carbon storage and the relationship between Species diversity and biomass carbon stock of natural forest, crop land and coffee based agroforestry systems of Alle District, South-west Ethiopia.. Data was collected from a total of 45 sample plots. After measuring the required parameters; Diversity index and evenness, Simpson’s similarity, Basal area and AGB carbon storage were analysed. Variation in woody species diversity, biomass carbon storage and correlation of woody species diversity were analysed using SPSS software version 20. The result showed that, land uses vary in both species diversity and AGB carbon. The present study indicated that Natural forest is greater than coffee agroforestry and much greater than crop land in both species diversity and AGB carbon. Species richness and AGB carbon have strong positive correlation. This may indicate that, afforestation and leaving patch reserves while converting natural forests to other land use types may maintain high species diversity and Biomass carbon stock.