Norby environmental sciences division, oak ridge national laboratory, oak ridge, tennessee 37831 usa. Litterfall was not uniform over the whole surface, under close canopy monthly average litterfall amounts 32. Rocky mountain research station fort collins, colo. Litter layer temperature neither affected shade tree leaf. We measured litterfall quantity and nutrient dynamics in decomposing litter for two years at the kwangnung longterm ecological research lter site in korea.
Litter decomposition is one of the key ecological processes in ecosystems. Surface fuel litterfall and decomposition in the northern. Statistical methods annual decomposition rates k values were determined by species and throughfall treatment mass loss data were analyzed using a negative exponential decay model y100ekt olsen. Annual litterfall dynamics and nutrient deposition depending on elevation and land use at mt. N may be the best predictor of mass loss and n release, with lignin. Leaflitter decomposition of the mangrove species avicennia. Periodic measurements of litterfall and litter decomposition with. Pdf litterfall and litter decomposition in pinus and. As can be seen in figure 1, pine litterfall masses were similar for the two treatments through out the 10 months. Litterfall, nutrient return, and leaflitter decomposition in. Litter decomposition an overview sciencedirect topics. Mortality and community changes drive sudden oak death. Rates of decomposition of koa, ohia, and banana poka leaf litter are estimated.
In tropical rainforests, there is a thin litter layer due to the rapid decomposition, while in boreal forests, the rate of decomposition is slower and leads to the accumulation of a thick litter layer, also known as a mor. Litterfall production, decomposition and nutrient use. Litterfall, nutrient return, and leaflitter decomposition. A global database of litterfall mass and litter pool. Litterfall, nutrient return and leaflitter decomposition 467 ground, and the litterfall was collected at 10day interv als from january 1999 to december 2001. Surface fuel deposition and decomposition rates are important to fire management and research because they can define the longevity of fuel treatments in time and space and they can be used to. Linking spatial patterns of leaf litterfall and soil nutrients in a tropical forest. B litterfall production and nutrient return to the forest floor 69 litterfall trap. Decomposition rates were determined by placing litterfall from each area into litterbags, installing these bags in the field within each area, and monitoring the litterfall weight loss over a 10month period.
Correlations between decomposition and concentrations of n, p, k, ca, and mg in residual material for each type of litter are examined. Changes in decomposition rate and litterfall in riparian. Total and leaf litter productions showed a seasonal pattern. Abstractfor the purposes of forest restoration, carbon c fixation, and economic improvement, eucalyptus eucalyptus.
Growth, litterfall and litter decomposition of casuarina equisetifolia in a semiarid zone. The growing season is relatively l ong with an annual frost free period. Litterfall and decomposition rates in biosphere 2 terrestrial biomes litterfall and decomposition rates in biosphere 2 terrestrial biomes nelson, mark 19990601 00. Rainfall 3000 mm y1 and litterfall were high throughout the year and rates of litterfall and litter disappearance were not related to the pattern of.
Annual litterfall dynamics and nutrient deposition depending. Litterfall and litter decomposition represent a major contribution to the nutrient and carbon inputs in forest ecosystem. Simplification of shade tree diversity reduces nutrient. The rate of leaf litter decomposition was highest in a. Seasonality of litterfall and leaf decomposition in a cerrado. Lindroth1 1department of entomology, university of wisconsin, madison, wisconsin 53706, usa. Three riparian zones were evaluated, and they were designated as areas of low l. Litterfall and leaf decomposition in nothofagus pumilio. Experimental litterfall manipulation drives large and. Litterfall and decomposition rates in biosphere 2 terrestrial. Sun, in reference module in earth systems and environmental sciences, 20. Drought effects on litterfall, wood production and. Litterfall, plant litter, leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, or duff, is dead plant material such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes that have fallen to the ground.
The rate of mass loss during one year of decomposition was unaffected by litter type whether the litter was produced under ambient or elevated co 2, nor by the site of decomposition whether the litter was decomposed in the ambient or elevated co 2 plots. Latitude also has a strong effect on litterfall rates and thickness. Nutrient dynamics in litterfall and decomposing leaf litter. The ash free pine litterfall masses did not significant ly differ between the burned and unburned treatments for any of the collection dates. Exotic species in riparian environments can influence the quantity and quality of litterfall in the ecological system. Litterfall n abundance indicates declining soil nitrogen. Litterfall was sampled biweekly during the snow free period may to november, depending on the latitude of the plot, and once at the end of winter. Pdf litterfall, leaf litter decomposition and litter. Preliminary studies of litterfall and decomposition were done in a montane rainforest on the island of hawaii to get indications of rates and to. Litterfall, nutrient return, and leaflitter decomposition in four.
The corrected mass, which is free from contamination by. Hfa of litter decomposition varied with species and season, and interacted with nutrient and environmental dynamics. Litterfall, litter decomposition, and flux of particulate. N, p, and minerals can be stored in soils for plant. Schlesinger1 1department of botany, duke university, p. Pdf litterfall, decomposition and nutrient release in an. Annual litterfall biomass and nutrient masses returning to the forest floor are estimated. Decomposition rate comparisons between frequently burned and. Litterfall, decomposition and nutrient release in an age sequence of alnus nepalensis plantation stands in the eastern himalaya article pdf available in journal of ecology 754. May 27, 2008 litterfall and wood production recovered rapidly following cessation of the drought. Abstract litterfall production, decomposition and nutrient use efficiency in three different tropical forest ecosystems in sw china were studied for 10 years.
We did not measure duff, tree, shrub, and herbaceous fuel dynamics in this study because duff is a byproduct of decomposition and many studies have already. Forests free fulltext carbon and nitrogen responses. Enhanced tropical forest productivity, facilitated by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, could act as a substantial carbon sink. However, lace bug herbivory was much more common in burned than in. However, a longterm field experiment shows that increased. Leaf litterfall was the phenological attribute that showed the strongest response to seasonality and drought.
Decomposition rates of leaves from five common flood plain tree species were measured using a standard leafbag technique. The difference was mainly linked to the activity and abundance of detritivores, together with the different litter quality of the species, which determined their palatability and probably influenced the decomposition process. Multiple nutrients limit litterfall and decomposition in a tropical forest. Litter decomposition via leaching of dissolved organic matter dom is understudied suggest the wettest of lowland forests may sustain some of the highest rates of litter turnover on earth climate change is likely to slow rates of decomposition, unless litter quality concurrently increased. Forests free fulltext carbon and nitrogen responses in. Mar 30, 2007 read comparison of litterfall production and leaf litter decomposition between an exotic black locust plantation and an indigenous oak forest near yanan on the loess plateau, china, forest ecology and management on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. We did not measure duff, tree, shrub, and herbaceous fuel dynamics in this study because duff is a byproduct of decomposition and many studies have already quantified the growth and mortality of live fuels. Tree growth, litterfall, litter decomposition, nutrient return. Chapter methods for estimating litter decomposition. Surface fuel litterfall and decomposition in the northern rocky mountains, u. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of eucalyptus leaves on litterfall and terrestrial and aquatic leaf decomposition in a riparian forest in sao paulo state, brazil.
Decomposition rate was higher during the rainy season. We used a balanced multifactorial design to examine the decomposition of leaves from the four different species of tree, across three habitat types primary, secondary and plantation forests and across four 3month periods within a single year 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after the bags had been left in the forest. Mauricio mello petrucio and jos francisco gon alves j nior, connecting the litterfall temporal dynamics and processing of coarse particulate organic matter in a. Comparison of litterfall production and leaf litter. Kuzyakov1,3 1department of soil science of temperate ecosystems, university of gottingen, gottingen, germany 2department of forest biology, sokoine university of agriculture, morogoro, tanzania. Read comparison of litterfall production and leaf litter decomposition between an exotic black locust plantation and an indigenous oak forest near yanan on the loess plateau, china, forest ecology and management on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. Seasonality of litterfall and leaf decomposition in a. Measurement data of aboveground litterfall and littermass and litter carbon, nitrogen, and nutrient concentrations were extracted from 685 original literature sources and compiled into a comprehensive database to support the analysis of global patterns of carbon and nutrients in litterfall and litter pools. Litter decomposition in a temperate and a tropical stream. Total annual litterfall was 5,627kghayr and leaf litter. When a larger c fraction is released into the atmosphere, a smaller c fraction is transferred to humic substances, which can be stored in soils for a long time. N was immobilized in litter during decomposition, whereas p was mineralized. The litter decomposition rates were relatively slow and constant during the first six month, and then increased with the onset of the rainy season.
Litterfall and the decomposition of needle litter and branches under different degrees of disturbance were measured for three years. Litter fall and decomposition in primary, secondary and. Forests free fulltext longterm years decomposition. When the relationship between infected hosts or mortality and litter nitrogen n concentration was significant p. Pdf litterfall and litter decomposition in pinus and native. Litterfall and leaf decomposition in forest fragments under. Paul, minnesota 55105 usa 2department of ecology, evolution and behavior, university of minnesota, st. Litter materials consisting of deciduous leaves, pine needles, and woody twigs collected during different seasons showed some differences in ash free dry weight, caloric, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and phosphorus contents. Pdf litterfall, litter decomposition and nutrient release. Bay laurel umbellularia californica and tanoak notholithocarpus densiflorus litterfall %n vs prevalence of phytophthora ramorum or cumulative dead tanoak basal area. Decomposition potential was determined using a cotton strip assay. Litterfall and leaf decomposition in nothofagus pumilio forests along an altitudinal gradient in tierra del fuego, argentina a.
The fate of c in litterfall in the south facing deciduous forest was as follows. Annual mean litterfall production in tropical seasonal foresttsf9. The objectives of this study are to measure litterfall production, litter decomposition, and nutrient dynamics in beijing urban forest ecosystems, test the hfa hypothesis in. Traps were mounted on steel fence posts with leveled rims 1 m above the ground. Experimental design in april 2007, we initiated a leaf litter manipulation experi. Import of allochthonous material in terms of litterfall in a 3rd order stream in mississippi coastal plain was 386g dry wtm2yr. Litterfall was sampled biweekly during the snow free period may to november, depending on the latitude of the plot, and once.
Linking spatial patterns of leaf litterfall and soil. Annual rates of total litterfall, leaf litterfall and leaf litter mass loss were 11. Read litterfall and decomposition rates in biosphere 2 terrestrial biomes, ecological engineering on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. View enhanced pdf access article on wiley online library. A twoyear study on leaf litter decomposition and litter invertebrates was carried out in a primary 4 ha 4 x 10 4 m 2 and logged dipterocarp forest plot 2. Aug 14, 2011 enhanced tropical forest productivity, facilitated by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, could act as a substantial carbon sink.
Organic matter decomposition, like in other forests, was a negative exponential function of time, and the decomposition rate is independent from the microsites. Decomposition rate comparisons between frequently burned. Soil carbon release enhanced by increased tropical forest. Nutrient turnover through litter was in the order of ca n k mg na p fe zn cu cr in all ages. In the early stages of decomposi tion the ratio of c. Specifically, litterfall declines with increasing latitude. There was a significant correlation p and the c and n concentration of litterfall components depending on the time of sampling.
This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent nutrients are added to the top layer of soil, commonly known as the litter layer or o horizon o for organic. Annual litterfall dynamics and nutrient deposition. Litterfall and wood production recovered rapidly following cessation of the drought. The leaf litter quantity was highest in quercus serrata, followed by carpinus laxiflora and c. Total annual litterfall was 5,627kghayr and leaf litter account for 61% of the litterfall. Litterfall and decomposition in harvested and unharvested boreal forests article pdf available in forestry chronicle 8805. There was a significant correlation p secondary and plantation forests and across four 3month periods within a single year 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after the bags had been left in the forest. All free standing woody stems with dbh 1 cm at cm from the ground diameter at breast. The decomposition rates were lower during the dry period from march to june 180270 d than those during the hot season in summer. Litterfall and organic matter decomposition in a seasonal. Decomposition was slower in the cerrado that we studied compared to a more closed cerrado physiognomy, reflecting their structural and environmental differences. Litterfall and leaf decomposition in forest fragments.
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