Plant litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in north Queensland tropical rain-forest communities of differing successional status

Journal of Tropical Ecology

Volumn 24, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 317-327

  Parsons, Scott A ^a   Congdon, Robert A ^a  

^a JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Decomposition; Leaf litter; Nutrient cycling; Rain forest; Succession

Indexed keywords

CALCIUM; DECOMPOSITION; LEAF LITTER; LITTERFALL; MAGNESIUM; NATIONAL PARK; NITROGEN; NUMERICAL MODEL; NUTRIENT CYCLING; PHOSPHORUS; PIONEER SPECIES; POTASSIUM; RAINFOREST; REGENERATION;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA; PALUMA RANGE; QUEENSLAND;

ALPHITONIA PETRIEI; EUCALYPTUS; EUCALYPTUS GRANDIS;

EID: 43649108628     PISSN: 02664674     EISSN: 14697831     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0266467408004963     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. ABER, J. D. & MELILLO, J. M. 1982. Nitrogen immobilisation in decaying hardwood leaf litter as a function of initial nitrogen and lignin content. Canadian Journal of Botany 60:2263-2269.
2. ADAMS, M. A. & ATTIWILL, P. M. 1986. Nutrient cycling and nitrogen mineralization in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. Plant and Soil 92:319-339.
3. ANDERSON, J. M. & FLANAGAN, P. W. 1989. Biological processes regulating organic matter dynamics in tropical soils. Pp. 97-123 in Coleman, D. C., Oades, J. M. & Uehara, G. (eds.). Dynamics of soil organic matter in tropical ecosystems. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
4. ANDERSON, J. M. & INGRAM, J. S. I. 1989. Tropical soil biology and fertility. C.A.B International, Wallingford. 171 pp.
5. ANDERSON, J. M. & SWIFT, M. J. 1983. Decomposition in tropical forests. Pp. 547-569 in Sutton, S. L., Whitmore, T. C. & Chadwick, A. C. (eds.). Tropical rainforest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.
6. BAETHGEN, W. & ALLEY, M. 1989. A manual colorimetric procedure for measuring ammonium nitrogen in soil and plant Kjeldahl digest. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 20:961-969.
7. BARLOW, J., GARDNER, T. A., FERREIRA, L. V. & PERES, C. A. 2007. Litter fall and decomposition in primary, secondary and plantation forests in the Brazilian Amazon. Forest Ecology and Management 247:91-97.
8. BOCOCK, K. L. & GILBERT, C. K. 1957. The disappearance of litter under different woodland conditions. Plant Soil 9:179-185.
9. BOWMAN, D. M. J. 2000. Australian rainforests: islands of green in a sea of fire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 357 pp.
10. BRIONES, M. J. I. & INESON, P. 1996. Decomposition of Eucalyptus leaves in litter mixtures. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 28:1381-1388.
11. COLEY, P. D. 1987. Interspecific variation in plant anti-herbivore properties: the role of habitat quality and rate of disturbance. New Phytologist 106:251-263.
12. COLEY, P. D., BRYANT, J. P. & CHAPIN, F. S. 1985. Resource availability and plant anti-herbivore defence. Science 230:895-899.
13. CONGDON, R. A. & HERBOHN, J. L. 1993. Ecosystem dynamics of disturbed and undisturbed sites innorth Queensland wet tropical rain forest. I. Floristic composition, climate and soil chemistry. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:349-363.
14. CUEVAS, E. & MEDINA, E. 1988. Nutrient dynamics within Amazonian forests II. Fine root growth nutrient availability and leaf litter decomposition. Oecologia 76:222-235.
15. EIJSACKERS, H. & ZEHNDER, A. J. B. 1990. Litter decomposition: a Russian matriochka doll. Biogeochemistry 11:153-174.
16. EKBOHM, G. & RYDIN, B. 1990. On estimating the species-area relationship. Oikos 57:145-146.
17. EWEL, J. J. 1976. Litterfall and leaf decomposition in a tropical forest succession in eastern Guatemala. Journal of Ecology 64:251-263.
18. EZCURRA, E. & BECERRA, J. 1987. Experimental decomposition of litter from the Tamaulipan Cloud Forest: a comparison of four different models. Biotropica 19:290-296.
19. GARTNER, T. B. & CARDON, Z. G. 2004. Decomposition dynamics in mixed-species leaf litter. Oikos 104:230-246.
20. GOSZ, J. R., LIKENS, G. & BORMANN, F. 1973. Nutrient release from decomposing leaf and branch litter in the Hubbard Brook forest, New Hampshire. Ecological Monographs 43:173-191.
21. GUO, L. & SIMS, R. E. H. 2001. Effects of light, temperature, water and meatworks effluent irrigation on eucalypt leaf litter decomposition under controlled environmental conditions. Applied Soil Ecology 17:229-237.
22. HEAL, O. W., ANDERSON, J. M. & SWIFT, M. J. 1997. Plant litter quality and decomposition: an historical overview. Pp. 3-30 in Cadisch, G. & Giller, K. E. (eds.). Driven by nature: plant litter quality and decomposition. C.A.B. International, Wallingford.
23. HERBOHN, J. L. 1993. The role of litterfall in nutrient cycling at disturbed and undisturbed sites in tropical rainforest in North Queensland. Ph.D. Thesis. James Cook University.
24. HERBOHN, J. L. & CONGDON, R. A. 1993. Ecosystem dynamics at disturbed and undisturbed sites in north Queensland wet tropical rain forest: II. Litterfall. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:365-379.
25. HERBOHN, J. L. & CONGDON, R. A. 1998. Ecosystem dynamics at disturbed and undisturbed sites in North Queensland wet tropical rain forest. III. Nutrient returns to the forest floor through litterfall. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14:217-229.
26. HERRERA, R., JORDAN, C. F. & KLINGE, H. 1978. Amazon ecosystems. Their structure and functioning with particular emphasis on nutrients. Interciencia 3:223-232.
27. HOPKINS, M. S. 1990. Disturbance - the forest transformer. Pp. 40-51 in Webb, L. & Kikkawa, J. (eds.). Australian tropical rainforests: science-value-meaning. CSIRO, Melbourne.
28. HOPKINS, M. S., ASH, J., GRAHAM, A. W., HEAD, J. & HEWETT, R. K. 1993. Charcoal evidence of the spatial extent of the Eucalyptus woodland expansions and rainforest contractions in North Queensland during the late Pleistocene. Journal of Biogeography 20:357-372.
29. HYLAND, B. & WHIFFEN, T. 1993. Australian tropical rainforest trees: an interactive identification system. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. 564 pp.
30. ISBELL, R. F. 1996. The Australian soil classification. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. 156 pp.
31. LAVELLE, P., BLANCHART, E., MARTIN, A. & MARTIN, S. 1993. A hierarchical model for decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems: application to soils of the humid tropics. Biotropica 25:130-150.
32. MAHESWARAN, J. & GUNATILLEKE, I. A. U. N. 1988. Litter decomposition in a lowland rain forest and a deforested area in Sri Lanka. Biotropica 20:90-99.
33. MAYCOCK, C. R. 1997. Plant-soil nutrient relationships in north Queensland wet tropical rainforests. Ph.D. Thesis. James Cook University.
34. MAYCOCK, C. R. & CONGDON, R. A. 2000. Fine root biomass and soil N and P in north Queensland rain forests. Biotropica 32:185-190.
35. MESQUITA, R. D. C. G., WORKMAN, S. W. & NEELY, C. L. 1998. Slow litter decomposition in a Cecropia-dominated secondary forest of central Amazonia. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 30:167-175.
36. MURPHY, J. & RILEY, J. P. 1962. A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters. Analytica Chimica Acta 27:31-36.
37. NORTHCOTE, K. H. 1971. A factual key to the recognition of Australian soils. Rellim, Adelaide. 123 pp.
38. PALM, C. A. & ROWLAND, A. P. 1997. Minimum dataset for the characterisation of plant quality for decomposition. Pp. 379-392 in Cadisch, G. & Giller, K. E. (eds.). Driven by nature: plant litter quality and decomposition. C.A.B. International, Wallingford.
39. ROWLAND, A. P. & ROBERTS, J. D. 1994. Lignin and cellulose fractionation in decomposition studies using acid-detergent fibre methods. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 25:269-277.
40. RUSSELL, A. E. & VITOUSEK, P. M. 1997. Decomposition and potential nitrogen fixation in Dicranopteris linearis litter on Mauna Loa, Hawai'i. Journal of Tropical Ecology 13:579-594.
41. SAKER, M. L., CONGDON, R. A. & MAYCOCK, C. R. 1999. The relationship between phosphorus fractions, phosphatase activity and fertility in three tropical rain forest soils. Tropical Ecology 40:261-267.
42. SALAMANCA, E. F., KANEKO, N. & KATAGIRI, S. 2003. Rainfall manipulation effects on litter decomposition and the microbial biomass of the forest floor. Applied Soil Ecology 22:271-281.
43. SCHROTH, G., ELIAS, M. E. A., UGUEN, K., SEIXAS, R. & ZECH, W. 2001. Nutrient fluxes in rainfall, throughfall and stemflow in tree-based land use systems and spontaneous tree vegetation of central Amazonia. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 87:37-49.
44. SOKAL, R. & ROHLF, J. 1995. Biometry. (Third edition). W.H Freeman and Company, New York. 776 pp.
45. SONGWE, N. C., OKALI, D. U. U. & FASEHUN, F. E. 1995. Litter decomposition and nutrient release in a tropical rainforest, Southern Bakundu Forest Reserve, Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 11:333-350.
46. SPAIN, A. V. & LE FEUVRE, R. P. 1987. Breakdown of four litters of contrasting quality in a tropical Australian rainforest. Journal of Applied Ecology 24:279-288.
47. SPECHT, R. 1970. Vegetation. Pp. 44-67 in Leeper G. (ed.). The Australian environment. CSIRO and Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
48. STOCKER, G. C. & MOTT, J. J. 1981. Fire in the tropical forests and woodlands of northern Australia. Pp. 425-439 in Gill, A. M., Groves, R. H. & Noble, I. R. (eds.). Fire and the Australian biota. Australian Academic Science, Canberra.
49. SWIFT, M. J. & ANDERSON, J. M. 1989. Decomposition. Pp. 547-569 in Lieth, H. & Werger, M. J. A. (eds.). Tropical rainforest ecosystems: biogeographical and ecological studies. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
50. SWIFT, M. J., HEAL, O. W. & ANDERSON, J. M. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Melbourne. 372 pp.
51. TALLEY, S., SETZER, W. & JACKES, B. 1996. Host associations of two adventitous-root-climbing vines in a north Queensland tropical rainforest. Biotropica 28:356-366.
52. TRACEY, J. 1982. The vegetation of the humid tropical region of North Queensland. CSIRO, Melbourne.
53. VANSOEST, P. J. 1963. Use of detergent in the analysis of fibrous feeds. II. A rapid method for the determination of fibre and lignin. Agricultural Chemistry 46:829-835.
54. VANCLAY, J. K. 1990. Effects of selective logging on rainforest productivity. Australian Forestry 53:200-214.
55. VASCONCELOS, H. L. & LAURANCE, W. F. 2005. Influence of habitat, litter type, and soil invertebrates on leaf-litter decomposition in a fragmented Amazonian landscape. Oecologia 144:456-462.
56. WARDLE, D. A., YEATES, G. W., BARKER, G. M. & BONNER, K. I. 2006. The influence of plant diversity on decomposer abundance and diversity. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38:1052-1062.
57. WEERAKKODY, J. & PARKINSON, D. 2006. Leaf litter decomposition in an upper montane rainforest in Sri Lanka. Pedobiologia 50:387-395.
58. WIEDER, R. K. & LANG, G. E. 1982. Acritique of the analytical methods used in examining decomposition data obtained from litter bags. Ecology 63:1636-1642.
59. WOOD, T. 1974. Field investigations on the decomposition of leaves of Eucalyptus delegatensis in relation to environmental factors. Pedobiologia 14:343-371.
60. XULUC-TOLOSA, F. J., VESTER, H. F. M., RAMIREZ-MARCIAL, N., CASTELLANOS-ALBORES, J. & LAWRENCE, D. 2003. Leaf litter decomposition of tree species in three successional phases of tropical dry secondary forest in Campeche, Mexico. Forest Ecology and Management 174:401-412.