scholarly journals Distribution status and the impact of parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) at Gedeo Zone (Southern Ethiopia)

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seta Talemos ◽  
Assefa Abreham ◽  
Mesfin Fisseha ◽  
Balcha Alemayehu
Keyword(s):  
Parthenium Hysterophorus ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Parthenium Weed ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Indicators of Land, Water, Energy and Food (LWEF) Nexus Resource Drivers: A Perspective on Environmental Degradation in the Gidabo Watershed, Southern Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5181
Author(s):  
Zinabu Wolde ◽  
Wu Wei ◽  
Haile Ketema ◽  
Eshetu Yirsaw ◽  
Habtamu Temesegn
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Driving Factors ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Driving Factor ◽  
Path Coefficients ◽  
Resource Degradation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Land Water

In Ethiopia, land, water, energy and food (LWEF) nexus resources are under pressure due to population growth, urbanization and unplanned consumption. The effect of this pressure has been a widely discussed topic in nexus resource literature. The evidence shows the predominantly negative impact of this; however, the impact of these factors is less explored from a local scale. As a result, securing nexus resources is becoming a serious challenge for the country. This necessitates the identification of the driving factors for the sustainable utilization of scarce LWEF nexus resources. Our study provides a systemic look at the driving factor indicators that induce nexus resource degradation. We use the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to develop the indicators’ weights, and use a Path Analysis Model (PAM) to quantitatively estimate the effect of the driving factor indicators on the LWEF nexus resources. The results indicate that social (48%), economic (19%), and policy and institutional changes (14%) are the major nexus resource driving factor indicators. The path analysis results indicate that among the social driving factor indicators, population growth and consumption patterns have a significant direct effect on the LWEF nexus, with path coefficients of 0.15 and 0.089, respectively. Similarly, the potential of LWEF nexus resources is also influenced by the institutional and policy change drivers, such as outdated legislation and poor institutional structure, with path coefficients of 0.46 and 0.39, respectively. This implies that population growth and consumption patterns are the leading social drivers, while outdated legislation and poor institutional structures are the institutional and policies change drivers which have a potential impact on LWEF nexus resource degradation. Similarly, other driving factors such as environmental, economic and technological factors also affect nexus resources to varying degrees. The findings of our study show the benefits of managing the identified driving factors for the protection of LWEF nexus resources, which have close links with human health and the environment. In order to alleviate the adverse effects of driving factors, all stakeholders need to show permanent individual and collective commitment. Furthermore, we underline the necessity of applying LWEF nexus approaches to the management of these drivers, and to optimize the environmental and social outcomes.

scholarly journals Community Perception and Attitude towards people with Depression among Adults Residing in Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (AM-HDSS), Southern Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Negussie Boti ◽  
Sultan Hussen ◽  
Gistane Ayele ◽  
Abera Mersha ◽  
Selamawit Gebeyehu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Educational Status ◽  
Psychosocial Treatment ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Community Perception ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Adequate Treatment ◽  
Loved One ◽  
Community Attitude ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND: Negative perception and attitude of community prevents many people with depression and their caregivers from seeking help and receiving adequate treatment due to fear of social reaction and may try to hide the illness. The reasons for negative attitudes are not consistent across communities or cultures. Therefore, understanding the level of community perception and attitude towards people with depression is important to develop an intervention to reduce the impact of mental illness.METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 617 randomly selected adults. The data was collected using structured, pre-tested, and interviewer-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics like frequency, mean, and median were performed. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the factors that affect the community attitude towards people with depression.RESULTS: Of the study population, 325(52.7%) had a good perception and 246(39.9%) had a positive attitude towards people with depression. The majority of study participants frequently identified as the perceived cause of depression was substance misuse, loss of loved one, and conflict within a family. In addition, psychosocial treatment was the most preferred treatment for people with depression in the study area. Marital status and educational status were significantly associated with the community attitude towards people with depressionCONCLUSION: Giving special attention to people with substance misuse, loss of loved one, and conflict within a family is very vital for the prevention of depression. In addition, future mental health promotion activities should focus on cause and common manifestation of depression to improve the attitude toward people with depression. 

scholarly journals Effectiveness of Community-Based Soil and Water Conservation in Improving Soil Property in Damota Area, Southern Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mamush Masha ◽  
Teshome Yirgu ◽  
Mulugeta Debele ◽  
Mengie Belayneh
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Soil And Water Conservation ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Conservation Practices ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Soil And Water

Soil and water conservation (SWC) is being advocated as an integral part of agricultural land management as it not only controls/minimizes soil erosion but also restores/rehabilitates the degraded lands. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of soil and water conservation practices in improving soil fertility in the agricultural landscapes of the Damota area, southern Ethiopia. Forty-eight soil samples (both disturbed and core samples) were collected from the conserved and adjacent nonconserved plots. The significance analysis test was performed using analysis of variance. The result of the study showed that higher mean values of soil physicochemical properties were observed in the conserved plot than its nonconserved counterpart. The mean differences of organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable K+ and Ca2+ between conserved and nonconserved plots were statistically significant at the P < 0.01 level. Besides, available phosphorous and bulk density were significant at P < 0.05 , but the effect of SWC practices was not found significant on soil texture, soil pH, and exchangeable Na+ and Mg2+ content of the soil in the Damota area. Community-based soil and water conservation practices have improved the soil fertility in agricultural landscapes, although significant results have been observed in some fertility indicators. Therefore, strengthening the implementation of conservation measures by participating in all stakeholders is recommended. Supporting physical structures by agronomic and vegetative measures and continued maintenance can bring better results.

How dry was the LGM? A Biosphere-Hydrosphere modelling approach for the paleo-lake Chew Bahir and Omo-River catchment in southern Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus L. Fischer ◽  
Felix Bachofer ◽  
Martin H. Trauth ◽  
Annett Junginger
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Boosted Regression Trees ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Lake Turkana ◽  
Ethiopian Highlands ◽  
Omo River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modelling Approach

&lt;p&gt;The formation of the East African Rift System led to the emergence of large topographical contrasts in southern Ethiopia. This extreme topography is in turn responsible for an extreme gradient in the distribution of precipitation between the dry lowlands (~500 mm a&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) in the surrounding of Lake Turkana and the moist western Ethiopian Highlands (~2,000 mm a&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;). As a consequence, the prevailing vegetation is fractionated into a complex mosaic that includes desert scrubland along the Lake Turkana shore, woodlands and wooded grasslands in the Omo-River lowlands and the paleo-lake Chew Bahir catchment, afro-montane forests of the Ethiopian Highlands, and afro-alpine heath in most elevated parts. During the past 25 ka, southern Ethiopia has been exposed to significant climate changes, from a dry and cold Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 25-18 ka BP) to the African Humid Period (AHP, 15-5 ka BP), and back to present-day dry conditions. These shifts in temperature and precipitation may have affected the vegetation pattern and landscape in the area, but environmental data especially from LGM times are rare. This is because in times of a dry climate the paleo-lake Chew Bahir was dried up and hence the climate record in lake sediments was interrupted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this study, we investigate the hydrological conditions during the LGM using a previously-developed lake balance model (LBM) for southern Ethiopia, which is now coupled with a new predictive vegetation model (PVM) to better understand the biosphere-hydrosphere interactions and thus possible precipitation thresholds. The PVM is based on the method of boosted regression trees using elevation and monthly precipitation as input to predict land-cover, tree-cover and vegetation greenness for a ~1 km grid covering the Omo-River, paleo-lake Chew Bahir, Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya catchments. We linked the PVM and the resulting land surface parameters with the LBM to model the impact of a changing land-cover to the actual evaporation. Furthermore, we used the glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGT) based paleo-temperature and tropical lapse rate reconstructions from Mount Kenya to consider the orographic temperature distribution in southern Ethiopia during the LGM. Using both, we simulated different precipitation amounts from 100% to 50% compared to the modern-day multi-annual averages and their effect on vegetation and lake levels of paleo-lake Chew Bahir. Our biosphere-hydrosphere modelling approach suggests 25 to 30% lower moisture availability during the LGM compared to the modern conditions and provides a high-resolution spatial reconstruction of the potential prevailing vegetation in the southern Ethiopian region.&lt;/p&gt;

Impact of Zygogramma bicolorata on vegetative and reproductive performance of Parthenium hysterophorus in Nepal

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (02) ◽  
pp. 2296-2306
Author(s):  
A. S. R. Bajracharya ◽  
◽  
R. B. Thapa ◽  
G. B. KC ◽  
S. B. Pradhan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Performance ◽  
Soil Seed Bank ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
Parthenium Hysterophorus ◽  
Shoot Biomass ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Zygogramma Bicolorata ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Noxious Weed ◽  
Parthenium Weed

Parthenium hysterophorus Linn. is one of the most aggressive, invasive weeds threatening natural and agricultural ecosystems in Nepal. Leaf feeding beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata Pallister (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is regarded as a potential candidate for biological control of Parthenium weed. Considering the fact effectiveness of Z. bicolorata against P. hysterophorus was evaluted in Nepal. Z. bicolorata caused 98.25 % defoliation of P. hysterophorus reducing 38.88 % plant height, 27.29 % plant width, 26.25 % root length, 12.33 % leaves, 40.58 % shoot biomass and 36.59 % root biomass in the period of 90 days. The flower production and soil seed bank were reduced by 50.22 % and 40.29 %, respectively. Z. bicolorata was an efficient bio-control agent with a significant negative effect on the vegetative and reproductive performance of the noxious weed P. hysterophorus.

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

Mycorrhiza ◽  
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.

The impact of traditional fire management on soil carbon and nitrogen pools in a montane forest, southern Ethiopia

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Gill Kim ◽  
Habitamu Taddese ◽  
Abrham Belay ◽  
Randy Kolka
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Forest Floor ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Montane Forest ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Nitrogen Pools ◽  
The Impact

We conducted studies to assess the impact of traditional fire management on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen pools. We compared organic carbon and total nitrogen pools in forest floor and mineral soil (0–100-cm depth) in three areas burned by local communities (B) with adjacent unburned areas (UB) (three paired sites; 1, 5 and 9 years since fire; hereafter B1-UB, B5-UB and B9-UB) in a montane forest in southern Ethiopia. Despite differences in time since fire and dominant post-fire vegetation, forest floor and mineral soil organic carbon and total nitrogen concentrations and pools were not significantly different between burned and unburned pairs or across sites. However, mineral soil carbon : nitrogen ratio was significantly higher in the burned area of B9-UB (0–10 cm) and B5-UB (10–20 cm), indicating small losses of nitrogen relative to carbon, likely from plant uptake or possibly leaching of nitrogen post fire. Combined, the data suggest that traditional fire management did not dramatically affect forest floor and mineral soil organic carbon and total nitrogen dynamics at these sites.

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