Relationships between Plant Biomass and Species Richness under Different Farming Systems and Grazing Land Management in Montane Grasslands of Kokosa District, Southern Ethiopia

AbstractPlant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.

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Impacts of improved grazing land management on sediment yields, Part 1: Hillslope processes

Journal of Hydrology ◽

10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.05.002 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 389 (3-4) ◽

pp. 237-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Rebecca Bartley ◽

Jeff P. Corfield ◽

Brett N. Abbott ◽

Aaron A. Hawdon ◽

Scott N. Wilkinson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Grazing Land ◽

Sediment Yields ◽

Hillslope Processes

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Economic performance of small ruminants in mixed-farming systems of Southern Ethiopia

Tropical Animal Health and Production ◽

10.1007/s11250-010-9603-5 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 42 (7) ◽

pp. 1531-1539 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Getahun Legesse ◽

Marianna Siegmund-Schultze ◽

Girma Abebe ◽

Anne Valle Zárate

Keyword(s):

Economic Performance ◽

Small Ruminants ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Mixed Farming

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Impact of Differences in Land Management on Natural Vegetation in Semi-Dry Areas: The Case Study of the Adi Zaboy Watershed in the Kilite Awlaelo District, Eastern Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Environments ◽

10.3390/environments6010002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 2 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ryunosuke Ogawa ◽

Masahiro Hirata ◽

Birhane Gebremedhin ◽

Satoshi Uchida ◽

Toru Sakai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Satellite Image ◽

Field Investigation ◽

Sustainable Land Management ◽

Forest Land ◽

Grazing Land ◽

Feed Resources ◽

Use Of Resources

The search for a sustainable land management has become a universal issue. It is especially necessary to discuss sustainable land management and to secure a site with enough feed supply to improve the lives of the farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands. This research studied the Adi Zaboy watershed in Tigray in order to reveal the changes in land management, assess how the different forms of land management affected the vegetation through unsupervised classification and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) analysis with geographic information system (GIS) 10.5 using a WorldView-2 satellite image taken in September 2016 and field investigation, and consider how to allow both environmental preservation and sustainable use of feed resources. The land management types at the research site were classified as “seasonally-closed grazing land”, “prohibited grazing and protected forest land”, and “free grazing land”. On comparing the NDVI of each type of land management, it was found that the seasonally-closed grazing land makes it highly possible to secure and supply feed resources by limiting the grazing period. The expansion of the prohibited grazing and protected forest land is likely to tighten the restriction on the use of resources. Therefore, sustainable land management to secure feed resources may be possible by securing and actively using seasonally-closed grazing land, securing feed by a cut-and-carry, and using satellite images and GIS.

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Native forests but not agroforestry systems preserve arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species richness in southern Ethiopia

Mycorrhiza ◽

10.1007/s00572-020-00984-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 749-759

Author(s):

Zerihun Belay ◽

Mesele Negash ◽

Janne Kaseva ◽

Mauritz Vestberg ◽

Helena Kahiluoto

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Species Richness ◽

Species Composition ◽

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽

Soil Samples ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Native Forest ◽

Native Forests ◽

Land Use Types ◽

The Impact

Abstract The rapid conversion of native forests to farmland in Ethiopia, the cradle of biodiversity, threatens the diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) pivotal to plant nutrition and carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of this land-use change on the AMF species composition and diversity in southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from nine plots in each of three land-use types: native forest, agroforestry, and khat monocropping. The plots of the three land-use types were located adjacent to each other for each of the nine replicates. Three 10 × 10m subplots per plot were sampled. AMF spores were extracted from the soil samples, spore densities were determined, and species composition and diversity were evaluated through morphological analysis. Both spore density and species richness were statistically significantly higher in the native forest than in the agroforestry plots with no clear difference to khat, whereas the true diversity (exponential of Shannon–Wiener diversity index) did not differ among the three land-use types due to high evenness among the species in agroforestry. In total, 37 AMF morphotypes belonging to 12 genera in Glomeromycota were found, dominated by members of the genera Acaulospora and Glomus. The highest isolation frequency index (78%) was recorded for Acaulospora koskei from native forest. Consequently, the agroforestry system did not appear to aid in preserving the AMF species richness of native forests relative to perennial monocropping, such as khat cultivation. In contrast, the native forest areas can serve as in situ genetic reserves of mycorrhizal symbionts adapted to the local vegetative, edaphic, and microbial conditions.

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Issues of sustainability and sustainable land management

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss95-060 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 75 (4) ◽

pp. 407-412 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

J. A. Zinck ◽

A. Farshad

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Policy Making ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Land Evaluation ◽

Economic Viability ◽

Management Systems ◽

Threshold Values ◽

Sustainable Land Management ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

Land Management System

The concept of sustainability shows many facets. Ecologists, environmentalists, agronomists, sociologists, economists and politicians use it with different connotations. In addition, the sustainability of land management systems varies in space, according to climate, soil, technology and societal conditions. Sustainable farming systems vary also in time, as they evolve and may collapse, frequently together with the corresponding sociosystems. Because of its complexity, sustainability is difficult to measure directly and requires the use of appropriate indicators for assessment. A good indicator is free of bias, sensitive to temporal changes and spatial variability, predictive and referenced to threshold values. Relevant data are often incomplete or inadequate for indicator implementation. To embrace the whole width of sustainability, several methods and techniques should be used concurrently, including land evaluation and coevolutionary, retrospective and knowledge-based approaches. It is, however, at the application level that major constraints arise. A sustainable land management system must satisfy a large variety of requirements, including technological feasibility, economic viability, political desirability, administrative manageability, social acceptability, and environmental soundness. Real world conditions at farm and policy-making levels need to be substantially improved to achieve sustainable land management. Key words: Definition, assessment and implementation issues of sustainable land management

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Plant colonization, succession and ecosystem development on Surtsey with reference to neighbouring islands

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-11-5521-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (19) ◽

pp. 5521-5537 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

B. Magnússon ◽

S. H. Magnússon ◽

E. Ólafsson ◽

B. D. Sigurdsson

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Biomass ◽

Vascular Plant ◽

Plant Cover ◽

Soil Formation ◽

Plant Succession ◽

Permanent Plots ◽

Plant Colonization ◽

Nutrient Input ◽

Species Richness And Diversity

Abstract. Plant colonization and succession on the volcanic island of Surtsey, formed in 1963, have been closely followed. In 2013, a total of 69 vascular plant species had been discovered on the island; of these, 59 were present and 39 had established viable populations. Surtsey had more than twice the species of any of the comparable neighbouring islands, and all of their common species had established on Surtsey. The first colonizers were dispersed by sea, but, after 1985, bird dispersal became the principal pathway with the formation of a seagull colony on the island and consequent site amelioration. This allowed wind-dispersed species to establish after 1990. Since 2007, there has been a net loss of species on the island. A study of plant succession, soil formation and invertebrate communities in permanent plots on Surtsey and on two older neighbouring islands (plants and soil) has revealed that seabirds, through their transfer of nutrients from sea to land, are major drivers of development of these ecosystems. In the area impacted by seagulls, dense grassland swards have developed and plant cover, species richness, diversity, plant biomass and soil carbon become significantly higher than in low-impact areas, which remained relatively barren. A similar difference was found for the invertebrate fauna. After 2000, the vegetation of the oldest part of the seagull colony became increasingly dominated by long-lived, rhizomatous grasses (Festuca, Poa, Leymus) with a decline in species richness and diversity. Old grasslands of the neighbouring islands Elliđaey (puffin colony, high nutrient input) and Heimaey (no seabirds, low nutrient input) contrasted sharply. The puffin grassland of Elliđaey was very dense and species-poor. It was dominated by Festuca and Poa, and very similar to the seagull grassland developing on Surtsey. The Heimaey grassland was significantly higher in species richness and diversity, and had a more even cover of dominants (Festuca/Agrostis/Ranunculus). We forecast that, with continued erosion of Surtsey, loss of habitats and increasing impact from seabirds a lush, species-poor grassland will develop and persist, as on the old neighbouring islands.

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Fertility Status of Acid Soils under Different Land Use Types in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Applied and Environmental Soil Science ◽

10.1155/2020/3713967 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Mesfin Kassa Cholbe ◽

Fassil Kebede Yeme ◽

Wassie Haile Woldeyohannes

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Acidity ◽

Acid Soil ◽

Acid Soils ◽

Southern Ethiopia ◽

Land Use Type ◽

Grazing Land ◽

Exchangeable Acidity ◽

Fertility Status ◽

Land Use Types

Information on soil fertility status of acid soil of a particular area as affected by land use type is important for developing sound soil management systems for improved and sustainable agricultural productivity. The main objective of this study was to assess the fertility status and effect of land use change on soil physicochemical properties. In this study, adjacent three land use types, namely, enset-coffee, crop, and grazing land use were considered in four districts (i.e., Bolos Sore, Damot Gale, Damot Sore, and Sodo Zuria) of Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from a depth of 0–20 cm from each land use type of the respective districts for physicochemical analyses. The results showed that land use types significantly affected ( P ≤ 0.05 ) soil properties such as bulk density, available P, exchangeable potassium, exchangeable acidity, exchangeable bases (Na, K, Ca, Mg), exchangeable acidity, and CEC. Besides, soil pH, OC, and TN were influenced significantly ( P ≤ 0.05 ) both by districts and land use types. The very strongly acidic soils were found predominantly in the crop and grazing lands whereas a neutral acidity level was found in the enset-coffee land use type of four districts. In conclusion, the study proves that land use type change within the same geographic setting can affect the severity of soil acidity due to over cultivation and rapid organic matter decomposition. Finally, the study recommends an in-depth study and analysis on the root causes in aggravating soil acidity under crop and grazing land use types.

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Labour Migration in the Middle Hills of Nepal: Consequences on Land Management Strategies

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11051349 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 1349 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Stéphanie Jaquet ◽

Thomas Kohler ◽

Gudrun Schwilch

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Mapping Method ◽

Forest Recovery ◽

Labour Migration ◽

Local Context ◽

Grazing Land ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Labour Shortage ◽

Qualitative Mapping

Labour migration in Nepal is having profound effects on land management. We take two examples from the hills of Nepal where the increasing trend in outmigration continues unabated and explore its consequences. The purpose of this study is to understand the impacts of the subsequent labour shortage on land management and how it affects households. We used data from two surveys and assessed land use change and degradation with a qualitative mapping method. The findings show that the local context leads to very different strategies in terms of land management. In one study area, land was left to lie fallow without any use, leading to overgrowth and forest recovery due to favourable climate conditions. In the other, land was no longer used as cropland but turned into grazing land with consequences such as land degradation. This study provides strong empirical data and also contributes to the mountain research community by shedding light on the effects of outmigration on land management in the hills of Nepal. We suggest that these effects, including the labour shortage and the increasingly important role of remittances, should be addressed in an integrative but differentiated way that takes into account the regional context.

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