Litter production and litter nutrient deposition potential in pine, oak and pine-oak forests in northeastern Mexico

Abstract

The litterfall is the main input and return pathway of nutrients to the soil in forest ecosystems, providing a long-term nutrientsupport in the ecosystem. In order to maintain the health in forest ecosystems, it is of vital importance to know the deposition andrelease of nutrients provided by litterfall. In this context, the objective of the present study was to determine and compare the returnand potential release of micronutrients from litterfall in three forest ecosystems (pine, oak, and pine-oak) in the “ejido” Pablillo,Galeana, Nuevo León. The litterfall sampling was conducted over a period of 16 months (September 2020 - December 2021). Todetermine the litterfall deposition, permanent canisters of 1.0 m x 1.0 m were randomly established. The study was based onplacing 10 canisters randomly per forest ecosystem, which were considered as replicates. The litter production (mg·m⁻²) during thestudy period was 771.06, 478.05 and 706.55, for the pine, oak and pine-oak ecosystems, respectively. The concentrations of fourmicroelements (Cu, Mn, Fe and Zn) were analyzed; these element concentrations generally showed the following descending orderas Mn>Fe>Zn>Cu. Mn deposition in the three ecosystems ranged from 1.95 to 45.10 mg·m⁻²; Fe from 1.36 to 42.63 mg·m⁻²; Znfrom 0.21 to 4.27 mg·m⁻² and Cu from 0.04 to 1.39 mg·m⁻². The differences in litterfall production and the deposition ofmicronutrients is related to structure and composition of each forest ecosystem, to the phenology o plant species and to theenvironmental contitions