NUTRIENT DYNAMICS IN SOIL ASSOCIATED WITH LEAF LITTER OF Shorea robusta Gaertn. f. IN MADHUPUR SAL FOREST OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

Litter plays an important role in nutrient cycling in forest ecosystem. Nutrients are released from litter through leaching, and decomposition process and readily available nutrients are obtained through leaching process. Shorea robusta forest is a tropical deciduous forest and shed their leaves during the dry season. In the vicinity, poor people usually collect this litter from the forest to meet household demand for fuel. Thus, a considerable amount of nutrients is lost from this system.However, some nutrients from those leaves is possible to harvest through leaching technique before use as fuel. Therefore, to quantify this nutrient Leaf litter production and leaf litter standing crop were estimated in the Modhupur Sal forest. In addition, mass loss and nutrients (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus) release through leaching were observed over 192 hours through leaching process in the laboratory. Mean leaf litter production was found 12.94 ± 0.65 g/m2/day during the litter shedding period was estimated to and the mean leaf litter standing crop was found 89.20 ± 9.77g/m2. About 10% of initial mass was lost after 48 hours of leaching process. Moreover, initial concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus was sharply decreased to 65 µg/g and 42 µg/g respectively after 24 hours and initial concentration (38 µg/g) of potassium was sharply decreased to 5 µg/g after 12 hours. About 25%, 45% and 92% of initial N, P and K content, respectively can be extracted through leaching process.