Woody Species Diversity under the Different Age of Area Closure and Slope Aspects of Boswellia Dominated Woodland of Kafta Humera, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Area closures have recognized to be the best land management practices for creating economically and ecologically sustainable land use planning. Although the need of scientific information is clear, studies made to assess woody species diversity under the different age of area closure and slope aspect of Boswellia dominated woodland are very limited.  This study assesses the woody species composition, diversity, and richness of Boswellia dominated woodland under the different age of area closure and slope aspect. For this study, four slope aspects (east, west, north, and south) and three age (two, five and eight) of area closure and one open land were purposively selected. The present study was conducted in Kaftan Humera, Tigray Region.  Vegetation assessment was done using systematic plot sampling and two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the vegetation data. The results of the study showed that eight years east slope aspect area closure were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in species richness (5.25), Margalef index (1.92), Simpson (0.67) and Shannon (1.37) diversity index. However, species evenness was not significantly (P > 0.05) differ in all age and slope aspect of the area closures. This suggests that age and slope aspects create plant communities that are quite different on different sides of the mountain of the area closure.  Thus, area closures have a considerable contribution in maintaining most importance woody species like Boswellia papyrifera from deforestation and land degradation for increasing biodiversity, ecological restoration, and community livelihood improvement.