Effect of environmental conditions on decomposition in eight woody species of a dry tropical forest

Abstract

Litter decay is a significant part of carbon budget. Due to strong environmental control, the changes in the environment may drastically influence the litter decay rates. Litter decomposition of eight dry tropical woody species, viz. Shorea robusta, Buchanania lanzan, Diospyros melanoxylon, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Lannea coromandelica, Terminalia tomentosa, Holarrhena antidysenterica and Lantana camara was studied to document the effect of intra-annual changes in the environment. Litter decomposition was monitored at monthly intervals at five sites using litter bag technique over an annual cycle in a dry tropical deciduous forest of Vindhyan highland, India. Weight loss differed among species and through months, and ranged from 15.38% in L. camara at Kotwa site in January to 30.72% in T. tomentosa at Hathinala site in August. Peak weight loss occurred in August and averaged 46.2% across species and sites. Nitrogen and phosphorus mineralization rates also varied significantly from species to species. T. tomentosa having higher nitrogen content and lower C/N ratio than other species exhibited faster weight loss. Nitrogen and phosphorus contents of litter showed significant positive correlation with weight loss. C/N ratio was negatively related to decay constant, and the weight loss was positively related to the soil surface temperature as well as soil moisture content.

Soil organic matter, nutrient distribution, fungal and microbial biomass and enzyme activities in a forest beech stand on the Apennines of southern Italy

“…Several factors such as litter quality, nutrient requirements of the microbial biomass (Seastedt 1984) and exogenous nutrient availability (Berg et al 1987) affect decomposition and nutrient release. Nitrogen is one of the main limiting nutrients for microbial growth and its low value in the beech litter (mean content: 0.6 -1.3%) caused a low decomposition rate (Gregori et al 1991;Pandey et al 2014). In our study, the increase in litter N content during decomposition, together with Fe, Zn, Na, S, K and Mn, evidenced their immobilization suggesting that these nutrients were limiting for micro-organism growth.…”

Effects of the invasive shrub,Lantana camara, on soil properties in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…) and other environmental conditions, such as the temperature (Pandey et al . ). Studies that compared the soil pH and bacterial activity concluded that acidic soils might inhibit both the bacterial and the fungal activity in the soils (Rousk et al .…”

“…Litter decomposition is an important process that connects many above‐ and below‐ground processes (Pandey et al . ). Some previous studies have shown that invasive alien plants, such as Lantana camara , Eucalyptus and Acacias , increase the amount of soil nutrients (especially soil N, P and C), soil pH, microbial N and P, decomposition rates and soil water repellency (Ehrenfeld ; Fan et al .…”

Carbon storage in cocoa growing systems across different agroecological zones in Ghana

“…In Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Juaboso the difference in SOC was as a result of high litter accumulation in the fields which serves as the primary source of SOC (Post & Kwon, 2000). This high litter fall aided by good environmental conditions for decomposition, thus, soil surface temperature and soil moisture (Pandey et al, 2013), caused variations in the SOC stored (Post & Kwon, 2000).…”