Litter dynamics and fine root production in Schizolobium parahyba var. amazonicum plantations and regrowth forest in Eastern Amazon

Abstract

Forest plantations and agroforestry systems with Schizolobium parahyba var. amazonicum have greatly expanded in the Brazilian Amazon, generally as an alternative for reforesting degraded areas. To our knowledge there are no reports of above-and belowground production in these forest systems. We quantified litter and fine root production in 6-yr old Schizolobium-based plantation forests (monospecific: MON, mixture: MIX, and agroforestry system: AFS) and in~25-yr old regrowth forest (REG) over 8-12 months. We used litter traps and ingrowth cores to quantify litter and fine root production, respectively. Annual litter production was significantly lower in Schizolobium-based plantations (mean ± standard error, MON=5.92±0.15, MIX=6.08±0.13, AFS= 6.63±0.13 Mg ha −1 year −1 ) than in regrowth forest (8.64±0.08 Mg ha −1 year −1 ). Schizolobium-based plantations showed significantly higher litter stock (MON=7.7±1.0, MIX=7.4±0.1 Mg ha −1 ) than REG (5.9±1.3 Mg ha −1 ). Total fine root production over an 8-month period was significantly higher in Schizolobium-based plantations (MON=3.8±0.2, MIX=3.4± 0.2, AFS=2.7±0.1 Mg ha −1 ) than in REG (1.1± 0.03 Mg ha −1 ). Six-yr old Schizolobium-based plantations and~25-yr old regrowth forests showed comparable rates of litter + fine root production, suggesting that young forest plantations may be an interesting alternative to restore degraded areas due to early reestablishment of organic matter cycling under the studied conditions.

Ecofunctional Traits and Biomass Production in Leguminous Tree Species under Fertilization Treatments during Forest Restoration in Amazonia

“…In general, the growth rates of the species in our study are comparable to the results of previous studies on the same species [1,25,26,47,48]. Joslin et al [18] found that fertilization treatments enhanced the height growth of both S. amazonicum and I. edulis.…”

“…D. odorata has great potential for use in forest restoration because it is a late successional species that is well adapted to degraded areas and also produces high-quality hardwood [24]. S. amazonicum, a mid-successional species, is currently the most commonly planted native species in commercial forest plantations in Amazonia because of its rapid growth and high-quality stems [18,25,26].…”

Rainfall patterns and the contribution of litter in the caatinga dry tropical forest

“…The rate of decomposition of the litter was estimated by Equation 3, proposed by Olson (1963), and already used in other similar studies (LOPES et al, 2009;PANDEY et al, 2007;SILVA et al, 2011;VANDERBILT et al, 2008).…”

“…The litter production of a region is a function of the contributing vegetation, precipitation and soil-water availability (SILVA et al, 2011;VANDERBILT et al, 2008). During the study period, the annual litter deposit for 2009 and 2010 was 6,034.22 kg ha -1 and 3,311.97 kg ha -1 , with a 45% reduction in production and an average production being estimated as 4,673.10 kg ha -1 .…”

“…Authors like Lopes et al (2009), Pucheta et al (2006) and Silva et al (2011) studying the production of litter in an area of caatinga, found that the depositing of litter presents a peak in production at the start of the dry season, showing a close relationship with rainfall, thereby affirming the deciduous character of this biome, as well as of other tropical ecosystems (BARLOW et al, 2007;SILVA et al, 2011;VANDERBILT et al, 2008).…”