Ecosystems

Aquatic in literal meaning refers to water. As an ecosystem, widely taken, it includes freshwater (rivers, reservoirs and lakes), marine (oceans and seas) and estuarine (coastal, bays, tidal) ecosystems. The Ethiopian aquatic ecosystem has high diversity areas such as major rivers and lakes that are

Ethiopia possesses a great diversity of wetland ecosystem (swamps, marshes, flood plains, natural or artificial ponds, high mountains lake and micro-dams) as a result of formation of diverse landscape subjected to various tectonic movements, a continuous process of erosion, and human activities. The

It is a very dry zone vulnerable to wind and water erosion even with little or no pressure on the vegetation from grazing. The vegetation consists of deciduous shrubs, dominated by Acacia sp. interspersed with less frequent evergreen shrubs and succulents. It has very variable grass vegetation. The

The characteristic species of this forest are Baphia abyssinica and Tapura fischeri (Chaffey 1979, Friis, 1992, Tesfaye Awas et al., 2001). Common species in the upper canopy include Celtis gomphophylla, Celtis toka, Lecaniodiscus fraxinifolius, Zanha golungensis, Trichilia prieureana, Alistonia

This ecosystem is characterized by Cmbretum spp., Terminalia spp., Oxytenanthera abyssinica, Boswellia papyrifera, Anogeissus lieocarpa, Sterospermem kuntianum, Pterocarpus lucens, Lonchocarpus laxiflorus, Lannea spp. Albizia malacophylla and Enatada africana. These are small trees with fairly large

The montane moist forest ecosystem comprises high forests of the country mainly the southwest forests, which are the wettest, and also the humid forest on the southeastern plateau known as the Harenna forest.The montane moist forest ecosystem is distiguished by supporting luxuriant growing epiphytes

The Ethiopian highlands contribute to more than 50 % of the land area with Afromontane vegetation, of which dry montane forests form the largest part (Yalden, 1983; Tamrat Bekele, 1994). The evergreen scrubland vegetation occurs in the highlands of Ethiopia either as an intact scrub, i.e. in

The montane grassland ecosystem is distinguished from other types of ecosystems by its physiognomy, floristic composition and ecology. It consists of herbaceous stratum usually not higher than 30 – 80 cm, very rich in perennial grasses and species of Cyperaceae, but also with sub-shrubs and

The areas which on the average higher than 3200 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l) are generally referred to as the Afroalpine and Subafroalpine (Hedberg, 1957). The lower limit of the afroalpine belt falls at about 3500 m, while the upper limit of vascular plants lies around 5000 m (Hedberg, 1964)