ZLV Online

Abstrakt

Litter-fall is an important part of nutrient cycle in forest ecosystems. Long-term effect of thinning and climatic factors on litter-fall was observed in young Scots pine stands, which were thinned at the age of 7 years for the first time. We found that mean annual litter-fall was 4 tons and varied from 2 to 8 tons per hectare. Mean concentration of nitrogen in the litter-fall was about 0.6%. It means that about 24 kg of nitrogen is supplied by litter-fall under young pine stands annually. Annual amount of litter-fall was affected by thinning (lower litter-fall several years after thinning) or by climatic factors (air temperatures positively, and sum of precipitation negatively). It was confirmed that further and long-term litter-fall studies on various sites are needed.