Abstract
During forest succession, litterfall nutrient fluxes increase significantly. The higher inputs of organic matter and nutrients through litterfall affects positively soil fertility and the species composition, which are essential components in forest restoration and management programs. In the present study, the input of nutrients to the forest soil via litterfall components was estimated for two sites of different development stages, in an early successional alluvial rain forest in Brazil. Litterfall returned to the soil, in kg/ha, ca. 93 N, 79 Ca, 24 K, 15 Mg, 6 P, 1.7 Mn, 0.94 Fe, 0.18 Zn, 0.09 Cu and 11.2 Al, in the site where trees were more abundant and had higher values of basal area. In the other area, where trees where less abundant and values of basal area were comparatively low, litterfall returned < 50% of those amounts to the forest soil, except for Al. The amount of Al that returned to the soil was similar in both areas due to the high contribution of Tibouchina pulchra (82% of Al returned). Comparatively, high proportion of three dominant native tree species (Myrsine coriacea, T. pulchra and Cecropia pachystachya) explained better litter nutrient use efficiency (mainly N and P) in the site with the least advanced successional stage. Although litterfall of these species show lower nutrient concentrations than the other tree species, their nutrient fluxes were high in both sites, indicating a certain independence from soil essential nutrients. Such feature of the native species is very advantageous and should be considered in forest restoration programs.
Highlights
The forest floor acts as an input-output system
Plant litter contributes significantly to soil organic matter and to mineralization through decomposition processes, maintaining site fertility and productivity (Prescott 2005). The reestablishment of this system is highly important during succession, in tropical forests, where most available nutrients are generally bound to vegetation biomass or to the organic matter of the upper soil layers
Litterfall is an important indicator of primary productivity, nutrient fluxes and carbon transfer in forest ecosystems (Bray & Gorham 1964, Ranger et al 2003)
Summary
The forest floor acts as an input-output system. Plant litter contributes significantly to soil organic matter and to mineralization through decomposition processes, maintaining site fertility and productivity (Prescott 2005). Even though studies involving soil fertility or nutrient availability and other components of nutrient-use efficiency (Vitousek 1997), as well as potential and realized resorption (Killingbeck 1996) are available, the litterfall mass:literfall nutrient content ratio is commonly used to compare ecosystems, sites and species (Silver 1994). This approach works best when the litterfall mass is a fixed proportion of ecosystem production (Vitousek 1982, Binkley et al 2004). As part of a medium-term ecological study in an alluvial Atlantic rain forest, continuing the study by Scheer et al (2009), this paper reports: (1) the role of common tree species in organic matter, nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn) and Al mineralization through litterfall in a nine to ten year-old regenerating forest divided in two sites differing in tree abundance and values of basal area; (2) the differences in nutrient-use efficiency among species and between sites and its associated implications for succession; and (3) comparisons of observed nutrient fluxes to those of other tropical and subtropical forests
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