Quantification of litter fall and assessment of nutrient composition in bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris var. Vulgaris) plantation

Abstract

:To quantify the leaf litter bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris var. Vulgaris) plantation/year and assessing nutrient in litter an experiment was conducted in farmer's field at Kottur, Tanjore district during 2014 with three different type of spacing viz., 5 x 5m, 6 x 4m and 7 x 4m. The litter fall study was initiated during November 2013 and biometric parameters viz., tree height, DBH and number of culms were recorded. For litter fall quantification, green shade net was tied around the trees at different spacing and litter fall was quantified at 3 months intervals. Litter samples were collected and analysed for nutrient contents. Soil samples were collected, processed and analysed for changes in nutrient status. The result revealed that the growth of bamboo differed from tree spacing and it was observed that 7 x 4m spacing recorded maximum tree height (8.3m), number of culms (39.3) and DBH (4.4cm).The maximum quantity of litter fall observed in 6 x 4m of about 7000 kg ha -1 yr -1 .The analytical result showed that the nitrogen content in bamboo was varied between 2.042 to 2.099 per cent, total phosphorus between 0.265 to 0.275 and total potassium between 1.061 to 1.072 per cent. With regard to changes in soil properties, soil pH was found to be slightly alkaline (7.48) in nature at the time of establishment of the plantation but over period of five years it decreased to acidic (6.26) and soil EC was decreased from 0.156 to 0.125 dS m -1 .

Litter fall and standing crop litter of<i> Bambusa vulgaris</i> Schrad. ex J.C. Wendl. stands in secondary rainforest in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

“…The percentage contribution of leaf litters being higher than twig in this study is consistent with the finding of some authors who have worked on bamboo species (Vargas-Hernández et al, 2012 andHariprasath et al, 2014). However, it was lower compared to the findings of Shanmughavel et al (2001) and Nath and Das (2012) in bamboo plantations in India.…”

“…It should be noted that data on litter fall and standing crop litter are not available on bamboo stands in Nigeria, so our results were compared with the results from other parts of the world. The total annual litter fall of 13.35±1.18 t ha -1 yr -1 recorded in this study was greater than 7.00 t ha -1 yr -1 , reported by Hariprasath et al (2014) for B. vulgaris plantation in India; 4.0-9.5 t ha -1 also in India; values of 6.7-8.3 t ha-1 yr -1 reported for highland bamboo plantations in southwest Ethiopia and some other species of bamboo in other areas (Weih et al, 2005;Nath and Das, 2012). However, the values in this study were lower compared with the values of 15.4-20.3 t ha -1 in a 4-6-year-old Bambusa bambos plantation in India as reported by Shanmughavel et al (2001).…”

“…There are fewer studies on litter fall production, standing crop of litter and amount of nutrients in bamboo plantation in tropical rainforest (Shanmugahvel et al, 2001;Hariprasath et al, 2014;Borisade and Odiwe, 2018). Most previous studies that are available in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, focused mainly on the ethno botanical potentials, antibacterial activities and socioeconomic importance of B. vulgaris (Ekebafe et al, 2010;Ogunwusi, 2011).…”