Figures & data
Figure 1. Land cover and location of the study sites in the Gatcheb catchment, southwest Ethiopia.
Table 1. Location of soil sampling points in the Gacheb catchment, Bench Maji Zone, southwest Ethiopia.
Table 2. Frequency of occurrence and species composition in evergreen forest, disturbed forest or/and agroforestry and cropland.
Table 3. Most common species in the three vegetation groups.
Table 4. Endemic plant species on the three vegetation groups in Gacheb catchment. (IUCN categories; CR = Critically endangered; EN = Endangered; VU = Vulnerable NT = Near Threatened; LC = Least Concern; NE = Not Evaluated.)
Table 5. Vegetation indices of evergreen forest, disturbed forest or/and agroforestry and cropland.
Figure 2. Ordination of the study sites with FA based on the vegetation composition in the three land use types at 5 topographic positions: FH = Faketen high, DM = Dakin middle, ZH = Zemika high, ZM = Zemika middle and FL = Fanika low. The first (FA 1) and second FA axes (FA 2) of the vegetation composition explain 82% of the variation between individual sites.
Figure 3. Biplot of topsoil physico-chemical characteristics of 5 study sites. Land use types: forest, agroforestry and cropland. Study sites: FH = Faketen high, DM = Dakin middle, ZH = Zemika high, ZM = Zemika middle and FL = Fanika low. Soil physico-chemical characteristics: BD = bulk density, Soil texture (sand, silt and clay), OC = organic carbon, N = total nitrogen, CEC = cation exchange capacity, P = available phosphorus, K = available potassium, Mg = exchangeable magnesium, Ca = exchangeable calcium, N a = exchangeable sodium. The arrow represents the direction of high weighting of soil physico-chemical characteristics in the first factor axis (FA-1) and in the second factor axis (FA-2). The first and second PCA of the topsoil explains 87% of the variation between individuals.
Table 6. Spearman’s correlation between FA axes of the vegetation and soil variables.
Figure 4. Soil physico-chemical characteristics of the top soil (0 – 20 cm) under cropland, agroforestry and forest. Mean values with different letters at the same site are significantly different from each other (p < 0.05). Sites: FH = Faketen high; DM = Dakin middle; ZH = Zemika high; ZM = Zemika middle; FL = Fanika low.
