The impact of land cover change on the carbon stock of moist afromontane forests in the Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve

Semegnew Tadese; Teshome Soromessa; Abreham Berta Aneseye; Getaneh Gebeyehu; Tomasz Noszczyk; Mengistie Kindu

doi:10.1186/s13021-023-00243-z

The impact of land cover change on the carbon stock of moist afromontane forests in the Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve

Carbon Balance Manag. 2023 Dec 7;18(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s13021-023-00243-z.

Authors

Semegnew Tadese¹, Teshome Soromessa², Abreham Berta Aneseye³, Getaneh Gebeyehu⁴, Tomasz Noszczyk⁵, Mengistie Kindu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Environmental Science, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. semetade@gmail.com.
² Centre for Environmental Science, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
³ Department of Natural Resource Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Wolkite University, Welkite, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
⁵ Department of Land Management and Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 21 Mickiewicza Street, Krakow, 31-120, Poland.
⁶ TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Institute of Forest Management, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany.

Abstract

Backgorund: Forest plays an important role in the global carbon cycle by sequestering carbon dioxide and thereby mitigating climate change. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the effects of land use/land cover (LULC) change (1989-2017) on carbon stock and its economic values in tropical moist Afromontane forests of the Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve (MFBR), south-west Ethiopia. Systematic sampling was conducted to collect biomass and soil data from 140 plots in MFBR. The soil data were collected from grassland and farmland. InVEST modelling was employed to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of carbon stocks. Global Voluntary Market Price (GVMP) and Tropical Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) analysis was performed to estimate economic values (EV) of carbon stock dynamics. Correlation and regression analyses were also employed to identify the relationship between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on carbon stocks.

Results: The results indicated that the above-ground carbon and soil organic carbon stocks were higher than the other remaining carbon pools in MFBR. The mean carbon stock (32.59 M tonne) in 2017 was lower than in 1989 (34.76 Mt) of MFBR. Similarly, the EV of carbon stock in 2017 was lower than in 1989. Elevation, slope, and harvesting index are important environmental and disturbance factors resulting in major differences in carbon stock among study sites in MFBR.

Conclusions: Therefore, the gradual reduction of carbon stocks in connection with LULC change calls for urgent attention to implement successful conservation and sustainable use of forest resources in biosphere reserves.

Keywords: Africa; Carbon stock; Environment and disturbance factors; InVEST model; Land use/cover.