ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forests and the Atmosphere
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1512150
This article is part of the Research TopicGlobal Excellence in Forest Science: AfricaView all 3 articles
Woody carbon stock estimation in homegarden agroforestry along altitudinal gradient in Southwest Ethiopia
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
- 2Mattu University, Mettu, Ethiopia
- 3Jimma University, Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia
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Woody plant species in homegarden agroforestry stores a large proportion of carbon stocks.However, there is limited information on the carbon stock potential of homegarden agroforestry along altitudinal gradients in Southwest Ethiopia. Thus, this study aims to estimate above-and belowground carbon stocks in homegardens using a nondestructive allometric model. Data were collected from 72 homegardens selected using a random sampling method. Woody plants were measured for diameter at breast height (DBH) of ≥ 5 cm and height of ≥ 1.5 m. The study revealed that mean aboveground carbon (14.39±2.95 Mg C ha -1 ) in middle altitude was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than (6.12±0.72 Mg C ha -1 ) in the low altitude. Carbon stocks were significantly different between middle and low altitudes. Overall mean carbon stock was 11.25±1.60, with mean above-and below-ground carbon stocks of 9.39±1.34 and 1.88±0.27 Mg C ha -1 , respectively. The top 10 woody species contributed to 78.50% of the total carbon stock, of which 56.73% were Persea americana and Cordia africana. Wealth status and size of homegardens were significantly correlated (r = 0.298 and r = 0.307, respectively) with the carbon stock. The overall woody carbon stock distributions vary mainly due to altitudinal gradients, woody species, and socioeconomic factors. As a result, the study will assist researchers and policymakers in choosing the best ecological areas and socioeconomic gaps for agroforestry practices that produce biomass and store carbon for long-term climate change mitigation.
Keywords: Altitudinal change, carbon stock, socio-economic, Woody biomass, woody plant
Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kepura, Geleta, Fole and Bekele. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tefera Jegora Kepura, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
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