Land use legacy effects on woody vegetation in agricultural landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia

Aim: Past land use legacy effects – extinction debts and immigration credits – might be particularly pronounced in regions characterized by complex and dynamic landscape change. The aim of this study was to evaluate how current woody plant species distribution, composition and richness related to historical and present land uses.
Location: A smallholder farming landscape in southwestern Ethiopia.
Methods: We surveyed woody plants in 72 randomly selected 1 ha sites in farmland, and grouped them into forest specialist, generalist and pioneer species. First, we investigated woody plant composition and distribution using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Second, we modelled species richness in response to historical and current distance from the forest edge. Third, we examined diameter class distributions of trees in recently converted versus permanent farmland.
Results: Historical distance was a primary driver of woody plant composition and distribution. Generalist and pioneer specie...