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Structure and function of a sub-tropical humid forest of Meghalaya III. Nutrient flow through water

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Proceedings / Indian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

This paper deals with water and nutrient flow through incident rainfall, throughfall and stemflow through a 50-year old stand of forest at Lailad. A larger proportion of water was accounted as throughfall and stemflow in March-April and was related to canopy density and this was inversely related to interception loss which was maximum in December. Many of the nutrient concentrations like that of N, K, Ca, etc. increased with the maturation of the leaves during October–November. Though concentration of nutrients was higher in stemflow, the total quantity was morevia throughfall because of larger quantity of water passing through this compartment. More of Ca and K was lost through run-off and percolation due to greater release of these nutrients through litter. The significance of these results have been discussed in the context of secondary succession after slash and burn agriculture (jhum) of which this forms a later stage of community development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, North-Eastern Hill University, 793 014, Shillong, India

    Jasbir Singh & P S Ramakrishnan

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  1. Jasbir Singh
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  2. P S Ramakrishnan
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Singh, J., Ramakrishnan, P.S. Structure and function of a sub-tropical humid forest of Meghalaya III. Nutrient flow through water. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. 91, 269–280 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03167130

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03167130

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