Page 1 of 46 Ecological and Floristic Study of Hirmi Forest, Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia Mehari Girmay12*, Tamrat Bekele2, Sebsebe Demissew2, Ermias Lulekal2 *correspondence author:
[email protected];
[email protected] 1Environment and climate change directorate, Ministry of mining and petroleum of Ethiopia, P.O.Box: 486, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full list of author information is available at the end of the article. Abstract Background: The Dryland area in Ethiopia contributes large vegetation resources. However, the landmass has received less attention even if it has high ecological, environmental and economic importance. The present study was conducted in Hirmi forest, which is one of the dry forest in Northwestern, Ethiopia; to study the floristic composition, plant community types, community-environment relation, vegetation structure and regeneration status of the forest. Method: Vegetation and environmental data were collected from 80 sampling plots having equal size of 25m×25m were designated as the main plots. Within the main plot, five 2mx2m subplots were laid to record seedlings, saplings, and herbaceous species. Furthermore, within each subplot, soil samples were collected to analyze the relationship of edaphic parameters with the plant community. DBH, height, BA, density, vertical structure and frequency were computed. Floristic diversity and evenness were computed using Shannon diversity and Evenness indices. The plant community types and vegetation-environment relationships were analyzed using classification and ordination tools in R package (ver. 3.6.1), respectively. Result: A total of 171 vascular plant species belonging to 135 genera and 56 families were recorded.