Influence of elevation gradient and plant species composition on soil organic carbon in Mount Rungwe Forest Reserve, Tanzania
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Abstract
This study was conducted at Mount Rungwe Forest Reserve, Mbeya, Tanzania, East Africa to investigate the influence of elevation gradients and vegetation composition on soil organic carbon. Elevation gradients were established through three elevation grids, the higher, mid and lower elevation. We hypothesized that soil organic carbon would be richer in high plant diversity than in low plant diversity gradients. Findings from this study observed that, low elevation had high moisture content (47.72 ± 1.49) and % soil organic carbon (4.02 ± 0.56) with low bulk density (1.03 ± 0.001) and soil pH (5.96 ± 0.06). However, only moisture content, bulk density, organic matter and sand content were statistically different across elevation gradients. It was also observed the proportional decreases in diversity as elevation increases with both Shannon and Simpson index of diversity indicating higher species diversity at lower elevations (3.62 and 0.03 respectively). Results from two multiple linear regression models indicated that moisture contents, plant abundance and species diversity explained the most variation in soil organic matter across an elevation gradient with R2 = 0.4063, F (3, 38) = 8.67, p = 0.0002 and R2 = 0.3510, F (2, 39) = 10.55, p < 0.0001 for model 1 (tree abundance) and model 2 (tree diversity) respectively.
Description
Full-text. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2023.100291
Keywords
Soil organic carbon, Elevation gradients, Vegetation composition, Species diversity, Mount Rungwe Forest Reserve, Soil properties
Citation
Mauki, D., Richard, U., & Kilonzo, M. (2023). Influence of elevation gradient and plant species composition on soil organic carbon in Mount Rungwe Forest Reserve, Tanzania. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 19, 100291.