Decomposition Of Forest Floor Organic Matter

To test our hypotheses we quantified biochemical characteristics of forest floor and soil organic matter together with the activity of cellulolytic and lignolytic extracellular enzymes in wide spread forest ecosystem that has received experimental n deposition since 1994.

Decomposition of forest floor organic matter. Although principally composed of non living organic material the forest floor also teems with a wide variety of. Site description and sample collection. Examples include urban decay or on a more personal level tooth decay. However decomposition and decay are vital processes in nature.

Decomposition and decay are the yin to the yang of growth. 4 7 the l layer consists of fresh undecomposed litter. The forest floor is often easy to separate from the underlying layers of mineral soil but these two major categories may be further subdivided. The f layer lies immediately below the l layer and consists of fragmented organic materials in a stage of partial decomposition.

The mean residence time of forest floor organic matter and its nutrients for contrasting forest types is shown in this table. The forest floor often consists of l f and h layers fig. In addition to temperature and moisture conditions soil acidity extremes ph 4 or 9 may severely reduce decomposition rates. They play an essential role in the breakdown of organic matter recycling it and making it available again for new organisms to utilise.

Determination of decomposition rates. The organic matter inputs and decomposition processes depend on several ecological and management factors such as the climate forest type site quality stand age stand density fertilization thinning fire and the incidence of insects and diseases.