LEAF LITTER ACCUMULATION AND MINERALISATION PATTERN OF HILLY SOILS

Abstract

To study the leaf litter accumulation and mineralisation pattern under different vegetational ecosystem, experiments were conducted at the Horticultural Research Station, Kodaikanal during January, 1992 to June, 1992. Plantations of eucalyptus, acecia (both evergreen). apple (deciduous) and pine (coniferous) were selected for the field experiment. The leaf litters were quantified monthly and these were further used in computation of nutrient addition to the system. An incubation study was also conducted using the leaf litter to investigate the mineralisation pattern by observing the C/N ratio. The results revealed that the leaf litter accumulation was appreciable under pine plantation followed by eucalyptus, while a low accumulation was observed in apple and acacia plantations. The accumulation of leaf litter resulted in soil fertility improvement as quantified by the enrichment of nutrients. Owing to their resistant nature, the pine needles mineralised very slowly as compared to the other leaf litters under the climatic conditions in the hills.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.A00709

Pages

184 - 187

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords