Potential of exclosure on aboveground biomass carbon stock and ecological fitness of woody species in Jabi Tehnane district, northwestern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Assessment of ecological fitness of woody species across land use is critical issues in degraded land restoration. However, little is known about AGBC stored capacity, important value and distribution index of woody species grows in exclosure and adjacent open lands. Therefore, this research is aimed to (i) analyse impact of exclosure on AGBC (ii) ecological fit species. A random sampling method was employed. Forty sample plots (50m*50m) were used. AGBC stocks (mean± SE) of woody species in adjacent open grazing and exclosure land use of GW site was 0.11±0.07 and 1.24±0.27Mg ha-1 respectively. While in adjacent open grazing and exclosure land use of WG site, the value was 0.27±0.03 and 2.79±0.27Mgha-1 respectively. In both site exclosure land uses, the proportion of rare, occasional and common woody species were better than their adjacent open grazing land. Cupressus lustanica from open grazing and Vernonia auriculifera from exclosure land use of WG as well as Croton macrostachyus from open grazing and Leucaena leucocephala from exclosure land use of GW site were recorded as top ecologically fit species. It is recommended to protect degraded lands via integrating ecologically adapted native species and fully used their diversity to achieve the potential benefits of land restoration