As cities grow, restoring and protecting urban forests is essential. Analyzing the diverse species within soil seed banks offers key insights for successful management. These seed banks hold historical and current vegetation data, helping predict future patterns and guide restoration efforts by natural regeneration. The study aimed to analysis the soil seed bank, composition, look into the diversity and potential for restoration. Data were collected and analyzed from 85 plots with elevations ranging from 2500 to 3000 m. The investigation was conducted in the mountain forest landscape of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 22 plant families, 44 genera and 56 species were found in the five-altitudinal ranges. Among the identified plants, 40 species were herbs, which represents 71.4% of the total seed bank flora and the highest number of herb species recorded in all altitudinal ranges. Five tree species were recorded from the seed bank flora, two of which were native (Juniperus procera, and Vachellia abyssinica) and three of which were exotic species (Cuprressus lusitanica, Acacia merensii and Eucalyptus globulus). Across all elevations (altitudinal gradients), seed density exhibited a decreasing trend from the top layer (0–3 cm) to the bottom layer (6–9 cm) of the soil samples. Low similarities between the soil seed banks and aboveground vegetation were recorded, with Jaccard's Coefficient of Similarity (JCS) values ranging from 0.133 to 0.16 and Sørensen's coefficients (S) ranging from 0.24 to 0.28. Juniperus procera and Vachillea abyssinica, native and characteristic species of dry Afromontane vegetation of Ethiopia, were found in the soil seed bank suggests potential for restoration through natural regeneration. There are three exotic species (Cuprressus lusitanica, Acacia mearnsii and Eucalyptus globulus) which are providing different ecosystem services are recorded in soil seed bank. Thus, this study recommend that the soil seed bank can play a role to restore native and characteristics species such as Junipers procera and Vachillea abyssinica in peri-urban Afromontane forest of Addis Ababa coupled with other restoration mechanism.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01619-wJumlah Kutipan Dimensi:
Tahun publikasi
2024
Penulis
Tenkir, E.; Bekele, T.; Demissiew, S.; Aynekulu Betemariam, E.
Bahasa
English
Kata kunci
soil conservation, seeds, gene banks, species composition, vegetation, natural regeneration, soil properties, soil management
Geografis
Ethiopia
