Fig 1.
Map of Ethiopia showing the location of the three forest patches in the Habru District and its environs, North Wollo Zone, Amhara Regional State.
The map was prepared by the authors using ArcGIS 10.5. Administrative boundary shapefiles were obtained from the Africa GeoPortal (https://ethiopia.africageoportal.com/). No copyrighted imagery was used. (a) Ethiopia with regional boundaries and study area. (b) North Wollo Zone, highlighting Habru and Gubalafto districts, where the study forest patches are located. (c) Amaya Mecha Kebele (Village), where the Micha and Mekelet forest patches are situated. (d) Gerado Kebele within Habru District, the location of the Gerado forest patch. (e) Micha forest patch in Amaya Mecha Kebele. (f) Mekelet forest patch in Amaya Mecha Kebele. (g) Gerado forest patch in Gerado Kebele.
Table 1.
Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) result of vegetation data.
Table 2.
Outcomes of the Adonis 2 test on significant environmental variables.
Table 3.
Total number of species, genera, families, and growth forms per forest patch.
Fig 2.
Dendrogram showing the four plant community types of the forest patches.
Table 4.
Characteristic species in each community type of the studied forest patches based on the average synoptic cover-abundance value (S6 File).
Fig 3.
Redundancy Analysis (RDA) showing the relationship between plant community types and significant environmental variables (p≤ 0.05), including slope, altitude, and cutting pressure.
Plots 1–28 were collected from Micha, Plots 29–71 from Gerado, and Plots 72–95 from Mekelet. The colors of the numbers indicate the community type classification. Full plot details are provided in the Supporting Information (S2 File).
Table 5.
Species richness and diversity indices of plant communities identified in the forest patches in the study area.
Table 6.
Mean value of anthropogenic disturbances along the three forest patches.
Fig 4.
Venn-Diagram of species in Gerado, Micha and Mekelet forest patches.
Fig 5.
DBH and frequency distribution class.
(a) Distribution of woody species density among DBH classes (1 = 2.5–9.0 cm, 2 = 9.1–17.0 cm, 3 = 17.1–25.0 cm, 4 = 25.1–32 cm, 5 = 32.1–43.0 cm). (b) Frequency distribution by height class of woody species (1 = 2.0–6.0 m, 2 = 6.1–10.0 m, 3 = 10.1–15.0 m, 4 = 15.1–20.0 m, 5 = 20.1–26.0 m).
Fig 6.
Population structure pattern of selected woody plant species in the study area.