Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Biodiversity Habitat Loss and Fragmentation at Gugu Mountain Ranges, SE Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing afro-alpine and sub-afro-alpine biodiversity habitat loss and fragmentation of Gugu MountainRanges using geospatial techniques. Satellite imageries, key informants and field observation were the major sources of data. Theland sat images of 1989, 2001 and 2019 were used to compute change and fragmentation level. ERDAS IMAGINE 2014, ArcGIS10.4 and FRAGSTAT version 4.2 was used to process data. Image differencing (extent and rate of change), normalized differencevegetation index (NDVI), and area, shape, and aggregation metrics were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that a declinein greenness value and shrinking of afro-alpine and sub-afro-alpine habitat by 1.49% between 1989 and 2001, and 2.62% between2001 and 2019. Due to this, the total area covered declined from 3540.65 to 1846.98 hectares over the last 30 years. Moreover, theresult further revealed that not only decline in size but also there were habitat fragmentations in the study area.