Human disturbance reduces forest density, biomass, and richness of species in sacred church forests of northern Ethiopia, according to new research by Catherine L. Cardelus of Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, and colleagues. These findings appear in PLOS ONE.

Due to land-use changes, such as roads and agriculture, forested area that once covered much of northern Ethiopia has disappeared. The last remaining forests exist in small patches with an average area of five hectares. The country's South Gondar region contains 1,022 of these forests, which are considered sacred, as each surrounds a church of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed 44 sacred church forests in South Gondar, examining how human disturbance--such as human-built structures and planted exotic species--affect forest biomass, as well as the richness and density of tree species and seedlings.

The analysis revealed human disturbances in more than half of the studied forest area. Much of this disturbance consisted of buildings and clearings for human gatherings. The findings show that human disturbance is a major factor linked to reduced species richness, density, and biomass in the small forests; these were also linked to smaller forest size.

Protective walls built to keep out grazing animals, which surround some of the sacred forests, had only a small positive effect on seedling communities. Unexpectedly, distance from the nearest city did not appear to affect a forest's level of human disturbance.

While human activities in these small forests are culturally important, they can impact the ability for seedlings to establish and compromise the potential for forest regeneration. Based on their findings, the researchers recommend conservation strategies to protect these sacred forests, including restorative planting within and between the forests, removal of weeds and exotic plants, limitation of new clearings, and protection of large trees that serve as critical sources of seeds.

Cardelus adds: "Ethiopian sacred church forests are the last remaining forests in northern Ethiopia and are biodiversity refugia and integral to the lives of local people. The integrity of these sacred forests is compromised by high disturbance (56%), which is negatively associated with decreased species richness and lower tree abundance, which may negatively impact human livelihoods."

Research Report: "Human disturbance impacts the integrity of sacred church forests, Ethiopia"

Related Links
PLOS
Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Complete world map of tree diversity
Leipzig, Germany (SPX) Feb 25, 2019
The biodiversity of our planet is one of our most precious resources. However, for most places in the world, we only have a tiny picture of what this diversity actually is. Researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have now succeeded in constructing, from scattered data, a world map of biodiversity showing numbers of tree species. With the new map, the researchers were able to infer what drives the global distr ... read more