Climate change due to anthropogenic induced land degradation is a real challenge to the Ethi-opian ecosystem. Hence, Landscape Restoration also called Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) was practiced to rehabilitate the degraded lands. However, its contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation was not well studied. Hence, this work has examined the role of IWM on improving climate change adaptation and mitigation, taking SOC stock as an indicator. IWM impact time series (1999, 2009 and 2018) data on land use and land cover (LULC) and total soil organic carbon changes were collected at Sero Watershed of northern Ethiopia. Soil samples (84 disturbed and 84 undisturbed) were collected from three soil depths (0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm) for soil carbon, bulk density, gravel content analysis and for overall SOC stock estimation. Research findings indicated that vegetation cover increased by 37.2% from 1999 to 2018 at the expenses of bare land and cropland. Thus, in turn has resulted to an overall increase in total SOC stock by 8.5%. It can be concluded that IWM has a significant role to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change through increased soil carbon stock in addition to its contribution to landscape restoration.
Gebrehiwot, G; Teka, K; Welday, Y
Can landscape restoration improve soil carbon stock? A study from Sero Watershed, Northern Ethiopia
Global Ecology And Conservation