Document: JIA-3-59-67
Mass and decomposition of litterfall in three tropical forest ecosystems in Xishuangbanna, Southwestern of China.
TANG, J.* 1,2,3 and M.CAO 1,2
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, Yunnan Province 666303 China 1
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan Province 666303 China 2
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 3
Abstract:
Tropical seasonal rainforest, secondary tropical forest, and man-made tropical forest are three dominant forest ecosystems in Xishuangbanna, Southwestern of China. We investigated the litterfall dynamics and its decomposition in these three ecosystems from 1996 to 1999. The total annual litterfall ranged from 8.4 Mg/ha/yr to 12.9 Mg/ha/yr in the tropical seasonal rainforest, 12.1 Mg/ha/yr to 13.1 Mg/ha/yr in secondary tropical forest, and 9.3 Mg/ha/yr to 9.9 Mg/ha/yr in man-made tropical forest. There are two peaks of litterfall each year, one occurring in January to March of the dry and cool season and the other in August of the rain season. The composition of litterfall varied with ecosystems. Among the three ecosystems, litter leaves contributed 40-60%, branch 11-15%, reproductive component 13-20%, and the other 3-11%. The leaves and branch lost 68% and 53%, 55% and 42%, 73% and 62% of their initial dry mass in tropical seasonal rainforest, secondary tropical forest, and man-made tropical forest after one year of decomposition. Our results indicated that the annual litterfall is higher than we expected in these tropical ecosystems and strongly seasonal dynamics of litterfall occurred in Xishuangbanna.
Keywords: Tropical forest ecosystems, litterfall, decomposition, Xishuangbanna
This abstract is being presented at: 10:30 AM in session:
Poster Session #13: Decomposition and Soil Respiration.