Abstract:
This study was carried out in Tarmaber district north shewa zone Ethiopia to determine the effect
of plantation forest with management intervention on woody plant species diversity, regeneration
and soil seed bank species composition in five different forest types, which are adjacent natural
forest, managed Cupressus lusitanica, unmanaged C. lusitanica, managed Eucalyptus globules
and not managed E. globules plantation forests. A total of 75 circular sample plots of 314 m
2
were established along a transect lines. Soil seed bank analysis was done from soil samples
collected in each of the plots (225 samples) to examine the similarity between the soil seed bank
and aboveground flora. Different diversity index and ANOVA was used in SPSS software for
analysis. The result showed that a total of 51 woody plant species was recorded in adjacent
natural forest (41), managed C. lusitanica (27), not managed C. lusitanica (9), managed E.
globules (22) and not managed E. globules (13) species. Regeneration of seedlings were 3538,
5567, 707, 1462 and 2524 mean stems ha
-1
for natural forest, managed C. lusitanica, not
managed C. lusitanica, managed E. globules and not managed E. globules respectively.
Unmanaged C. lusitanica plantations had significantly lower densities of mature tree stems ha
-1
as compared to managed C. lusitanica, managed E. globules and adjacent natural forest (F=14.03,
p<0.05).Similarly in terms of sapling density ha
-1
unmanaged C. lusitanica was significantly
lower from other forest types (F=7.37, p <0.05). However managed C. lusitanica had
significantly higher seedling regeneration (stem density ha
-1
) than other plantation and adjacent
natural forests (F = 16.11, p < 0.05). Generally mean stem densities including tree, sapling and
seedling of woody species among different forest types managed C. lusitanica was significantly
higher among different forest types (F= 13.01, p<0.05). From the soil seed bank a total of 22
plant species (20 native and 2 exotic) species were recovered. In different forest types the number
of species recorded was in adjacent natural forest (19), managed C. lusitanica (11), unmanaged
C. lusitanica (4), managed E. globules (7) and unmanaged E. globules (5). The similarity of the
oil seed bank was more or less similar to the above ground flora with maximum Sorenson’s
similarity values of 0.633. Generally with appropriate management intervention undergrowth
vegetation and soil seed bank status in plantation forest had good species composition and
diversity
