Litter production and litter nutrient deposition potential in pine, oak and pine-oak forests in northeastern Mexico

Abstract

The litterfall is the main input and return pathway of nutrients to the soil in forest ecosystems, providing a long-term nutrient support in the ecosystem. In order to maintain the health in forest ecosystems, it is of vital importance to know the deposition and release of nutrients provided by litterfall. In this context, the objective of the present study was to determine and compare the return and potential release of micronutrients from litterfall in three forest ecosystems (pine, oak, and pine-oak) in the “ejido” Pablillo, Galeana, Nuevo León. The litterfall sampling was conducted over a period of 16 months (September 2020 - December 2021). To determine the litterfall deposition, permanent canisters of 1.0 m x 1.0 m were randomly established. The study was based on placing 10 canisters randomly per forest ecosystem, which were considered as replicates. The litter production (mg·m⁻²) during the study period was 771.06, 478.05 and 706.55, for the pine, oak and pine-oak ecosystems, respectively. The concentrations of four microelements (Cu, Mn, Fe and Zn) were analyzed; these element concentrations generally showed the following descending order as Mn>Fe>Zn>Cu. Mn deposition in the three ecosystems ranged from 1.95 to 45.10 mg·m⁻²; Fe from 1.36 to 42.63 mg·m⁻²; Zn from 0.21 to 4.27 mg·m⁻² and Cu from 0.04 to 1.39 mg·m⁻². The differences in litterfall production and the deposition of micronutrients is related to structure and composition of each forest ecosystem, to the phenology o plant species and to the environmental contitions.