Impact of Lantana camara on plant diversity and composition in Dara, Mirab Abaya, and Dila Zuria, Ethiopia

Lantana camara (L.camara) has been ranked as the top impacting invasive alien plant species. However, its impacts have not been well studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of L.camara on species diversity and composition of invaded plant communities in three districts of Ethiopia. A total of 120 (60 plots for each invaded and non-invaded), 10mX10m plots were sampled to examine its effects of invasions on the diversity and composition of invaded plant communities. A total of 109 plant species were found in the non-invaded areas as compared to 56 in invaded areas. The plant species richness decreased by 48.6% in L.camara invaded areas as compared to non-invaded. The mean evenness values of the entire invaded sampled study site and that of non-invaded were 0.24 and 0.81 respectively. Thus, the heterogeneity of invaded study sites was reduced by 57%. The number of plant families was 44 in the non-invaded areas in contrast to only 30 in invaded areas. The number of plant families decreased by 31.8% in the invaded areas as compared to non-invaded. One-way ANOVA, regression, and ordination analyses also showed a strong negative relationship between the percentage of L.camara and diversity of plant species. Therefore, it was noted that L.camara has a serious impact on plant species diversity and composition. Hence, the finding calls for an urgent management and control strategy against the spread of L.camara so as to save the ongoing threat to biodiversity.