Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T23:08:04.760Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Volume measurements for quicker determination of forest litter standing crop

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2009

Scott A. Parsons ,
Luke P. Shoo  and
Stephen E. Williams
Scott A. Parsons*
Affiliation:
Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811Australia
Luke P. Shoo
Affiliation:
Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811Australia
Stephen E. Williams
Affiliation:
Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811Australia
*
1Corresponding author. Email: scott.parsons@jcu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Litter standing crop (LSC) is the quantity of plant detritus on the floor in forested environments. Knowledge of LSC is important in understanding many ecological phenomena. These include studies of litterfall, decomposition/litter turnover rates and nutrient cycling (Anderson et al. 1983, Dent et al. 2006), general plant performance (Benítez-Malvido & Kossmann-Ferraz 1999), other ecosystem processes such as the effects of fire (Odiwe & Muoghalu 2003) and fauna (Frith & Frith 1990, Giaretta et al. 1999, Levings & Windsor 1985). The determination of accurate annual average LSC data, may require monitoring over long periods due to seasonality and sometimes sporadic nature of litterfall and decomposition rates (Clark et al. 2001). Furthermore, the effects of topography and water movement create the need for both representative site selection and sufficient spatial coverage.

Keywords

leaf litterlitter standing cropmethodsvolume
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 25 , Issue 6 , November 2009 , pp. 665 - 669
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ANDERSON, J. M., PROCTOR, J. & VALLACK, H. W. 1983. Ecological studies in 4 contrasting lowland rainforests in Gunung-Mulu National Park, Sarawak Malaysia III. Decomposition processes and nutrient losses from leaf litter. Journal of Ecology 71:503–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BENÍTEZ-MALVIDO, J. & KOSSMANN-FERRAZ, I. D. 1999. Litter cover variability affects seedling performance and herbivory. Biotropica 31:598–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLARK, D. A., BROWN, S., KICKLIGHTER, D. W., CHAMBERS, J. Q., THOMLINSON, J. R. & NI, J. 2001. Measuring net primary production in forests: concepts and field methods. Ecological Applications 11:356–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAY, F. P. 1979. Litter accumulation in four plant communities in the Dismal Swamp, Virginia. American Midland Naturalist 102:281–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DENT, D. H., BAGCHI, R., ROBINSON, D., MAJALAP-LEE, N. & BURSLEM, D. F. R. P. 2006. Nutrient fluxes via litterfall and leaf litter decomposition vary across a gradient of soil nutrient supply in a lowland tropical rain forest. Plant & Soil 288:197–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EDWARDS, P. J. 1977. Studies of mineral cycling in a montane rainforest in New Guinea, II. The production and disappearance of litter. Journal of Ecology 65:971–992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FRITH, D. & FRITH, C. 1990. Seasonality of litter invertebrate populations in an Australian upland tropical rain forest. Biotropica 22:181–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIARETTA, A. A., FACURE, K. G., SAWAYA, R. J. & CHEMIN, N. 1999. Diversity and abundance of litter frogs in a montane forest of southeastern Brazil: seasonal and altitudinal changes. Biotropica 31:669–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOMA-TCHIMBAKALA, J. & BERNHARD-REVERSAT, F. 2006. Comparison of litter dynamics in three plantations of an indigenous timber-tree species (Terminalia superba) and a natural tropical forest in Mayombe, Congo. Forest Ecology and Management 229:304–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GONG, W. K. & ONG, J. E. 1983. Litter production and decomposition in a coastal hill dipterocarp forest. Pp. 275–285 in Sutton, S. L., Whitmore, T. C. & Chadwick, A. C. (eds.). Tropical rainforest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.Google Scholar
LEVINGS, S. C. & WINDSOR, D. M. 1985. Litter arthropod populations in a tropical deciduous forest: relationships between years and arthropod groups. Journal of Animal Ecology 54:61–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NASCIMENTO, H. E. M. & LAURANCE, W. F. 2002. Total aboveground biomass in central Amazonian rainforests: a landscape-scale study. Forest Ecology and Management 168:311–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ODIWE, A. I. & MUOGHALU, J. I. 2003. Litterfall dynamics and forest floor litter as influenced by fire in a secondary lowland rain forest in Nigeria. Tropical Ecology 44:241–249.Google Scholar
PROCTOR, J., ANDERSON, J. M., FOGDEN, S. C. L. & VALLACK, H. W. 1983. Ecological studies in four contrasting lowland rain forests in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak: II. Litterfall, litter standing crop and preliminary observations on herbivory. Journal of Ecology 71:261–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCOTT, D. A., PROCTOR, J. & THOMPSON, J. 1992. Ecological studies on a lowland evergreen rain forest on Maracá Island, Roraima, Brazil. II. Litter and nutrient cycling. Journal of Ecology 80:705–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SONGWE, N. C., OKALI, D. U. U. & FASEHUN, F. E. 1995. Litter decomposition and nutrient release in a tropical rainforest, Southern Bakundu Forest Reserve, Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 11:333–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SPAIN, A. V. 1984. Litterfall and the standing crop of litter in three Australian tropical rainforests. Journal of Ecology 72:947–961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TANNER, E. V. J. 1981. The decomposition of leaf litter in Jamaican montane rainforests. Journal of Ecology 69:263–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar