Biodiversity conservation in the sacred groves of north-west Ethiopia: diversity and community structure of woody species

Autor: Luc Lens, Ferehiwot Mequanint, Diederik Strubbe, Enyew Adgo, Shimeles Aynalem, Amaury Frankl, Alemayehu Wassie, Jan Nyssen, Bart Muys
Přispěvatelé: Bahir Dar University (BDU), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University (UGENT), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), This study received financial support from VLIR-UOS, Belgium through the VLIR-IUC Interuniversity cooperation with Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia (BDU-IUC, Universiteit Gent = Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Extinction debts
PATCHES
IMPACT
Evolution
Seedling
Biodiversity & Conservation
Biodiversity
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Metapopulation
Sacred grove
[SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics
Phylogenetics and taxonomy

010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Recruitment credit
Ecosystem services
[SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology
environment/Ecosystems

Behavior and Systematics
Abundance (ecology)
Fragmentation
lcsh:QH540-549.5
ASSEMBLAGES
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics

CHURCH FORESTS
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Agricultural matrix
ENVIRONMENT
Science & Technology
Habitat fragmentation
LANDSCAPE
Ecology
Agroforestry
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Vegetation
15. Life on land
[SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics
Geography
EXTINCTION
Habitat
HABITAT FRAGMENTATION
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Biodiversity Conservation
Species richness
VEGETATION
lcsh:Ecology
[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
RESPONSES
Zdroj: Global Ecology and Conservation
Global Ecology and Conservation, 2020, 24, pp.e01377. ⟨10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01377⟩
Global Ecology and Conservation, Elsevier, 2020, 24, pp.e01377. ⟨10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01377⟩
Global Ecology and Conservation, Vol 24, Iss, Pp e01377-(2020)
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
ISSN: 2351-9894
Popis: International audience; Forest fragmentation is globally pervasive but especially severe in tropical forests, as exemplified by the state of Afrotropical montane forests in Ethiopia, where remnant forests almost exclusively exists as small, isolated fragments centered around churches, forming networks of partially intact ‘habitat islands.’ Church forests deliver ecosystem services such as forest products and erosion control, and are considered a benchmark for assessing forest biodiversity quality. However, safeguarding church forest integrity necessitates a better understanding of the factors determining their biodiversity and community structure. Therefore, we surveyed a network of church forests southeast of Lake Tana to assess factors explaining their tree species richness and composition. We found that the 24 church forests studied here represent about 20% of the ca. 270 tree species that occur in tropical northeast Africa. All surveyed forests however face strong extinction debts, with five tree species at risk of completely disappearing from the region and many more species only regenerating in a limited number of church forests. Church forest integrity partially reflected the anthropogenic pressure on the area, as forest regeneration tended to be stronger in fenced church forests. Seedling abundance depended on the local presence of large, mature conspecific trees and on the geographic distance to potential source populations of seeds, strongly suggest that metapopulation dynamics likely are important. We conclude that church forest conservation and minimizing further degradation of the landscape matrix are needed to help sustaining the ecological and socioeconomic potential of this unique network of remnant forests.
Databáze: OpenAIRE