The relative importance of litter nutrients, C-related, and physical traits in controlling litter decomposition vary substantially between deciduous and evergreen species

Litter decomposition plays important roles in maintaining ecosystem function and controlling carbon (C) and nutrient cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, understanding its fundamental controlling factors is of great value to improve the accuracy of biologically driven global carbon (C) cycle of prediction models. In this study, we conducted a field decomposition experiment with 205 tree species litters and quantified the relative importance of litter nutrients, C-related and physical traits in controlling litter decomposition in different plant functional groups. The results showed that across all species, litter nutrients (65.1%) explained more variation in litter decomposition than physical (17.5%) and C-related traits (17.4%). Litter nutrients had lower explanation for deciduous species (47.0%) than for evergreen species (77.9%), while C-related and physical traits had higher explanation for deciduous litters (20.5% and 32.5%) than for evergreen species (13.5% and 8.6%), suggesting that the importance of these three categorized litter traits in controlling litter decomposability was plant functional type dependent. Nitrogen, tannins and water saturation capacity were the best predictors of litter decomposition among nutrients, C-related and physical traits, respectively, irrespective of plant functional types. In sum, our findings highlight the differences in the roles of initial litter nutrients, C-related and physical traits in regulating litter decomposition and suggest that litter trait-decomposition relationships vary substantially between deciduous and evergreen species, necessitating their explicit consideration in Earth’s C cycle models to improve the accuracy of predicting litter decomposition.

Assessment of Essential Nutrients in Soil with Litter Chemistry of Tropical Deciduous Forest, India

We investigated assessment of essential and non-essential nutrients in soil along with litter chemistry in the tropical deciduous forest at Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, India. Three forest communities in teak plantation (TP), sal mixed (SM) and dry mixed (DM). The factors examined were nutrients contents chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel(Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and carbon in soil and litter. Majorly of essential nutrients levels were higher in the DM followed by SM and TP in soils. Zn was increased in TP, while Cu in SM soils at the depth of 0-15cm. Overall litter nutrients, concentration was maximum in DM. But some litter nutrients as like Ni and Zn maximum in the SM and TP. TOC was maximum in SM (19.23 g kg–1) followed by DM (17.74 g kg–1) and TP (13.62). Litter C was also increased in DM followed by SM and TP.

Fluxes in litter decomposition in three selected indigenous species and teak in a converted rainforest ecosystem in southwestern Nigeria

The study investigated the rate of litter decomposition in three prominent litter releasing indigenous tree species in the natural rainforest and an exotic species Teak, Tectona grandis Lim., in the adjacent plantation in Akure forest reserve, southwestern Nigeria. Results showed that teak had the highest litter decomposition rate and Mansonia altissima the least. There was no relationship between the rates of decomposition among all species examined. The implication is that teak litter had the highest probability of releasing litter nutrients into the soil nutrient pool than any of the selected indigenous tree species while Mansonia altissima had the least. However all species had high decomposition rates. This implies that soil fertility will be maintained if any of the tree species were to be used for monoculture plantations. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjsir.v47i3.13069 Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 47(3), 333-338 2012