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Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest

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An Erratum to this article was published on 27 November 2015

Abstract

Our knowledge about the influence of silvicultural treatments on nutrient cycling processes in Mediterranean forests is still limited. Four levels of tree removal were compared in an Aleppo pine forest in eastern Spain to determine the effects on litterfall, litter decomposition and the associated nutrient fluxes after 12 years. Removal treatments included clearfelling, two shelterwood intensities (60 and 75 % of basal area removed) and untreated controls. Twelve years later, the basal area removed still explained 60 % of litterfall mass variance and 60 % of C, 52 % of N, 45 % of P, 17 % of K, 47 % of Ca and 60 % of Mg return variances. Litter decomposed somewhat more slowly in clearfellings compared to controls (p = 0.049), accumulated more Ca and released less K compared to the other three treatments. This was explained by contamination with mineral particles due to the poorly developed O horizon in clearfellings. We conclude that the management practices reduced the nutrient return via litterfall, but the nutrient release through decomposition seems poorly sensitive to canopy disturbance. In order to accurately quantify the harvesting impacts on nutrient cycling in this Mediterranean forest system, it is necessary to measure the litterfall of the understory layer.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by a fellowship from the Generalitat Valenciana, Consellería de Educación, Formación y Empleo awarded to L. Lado-Monserrat (BFPI/2008/041). Silvicultural treatments were carried out by the Mediterranean Centre for Environmental Studies (CEAM) through programme “I + D en relación con la restauración de la cubierta vegetal y otros aspectos de investigación forestal”. Dataloggers and probes were provided by the Generalitat Valenciana through Project “Efecto de diferentes sistemas de aclareo de masa forestal sobre la disponibilidad de agua, nutrientes y la regeneración de la masa arbórea y arbustiva en parcelas de pinar” (GV06/126). We acknowledge Joana Oliver, Ruth M. Tavera and Daniel Fortanet for their help in the laboratory and in the field. The authors wish to thank Francisco Galiana for his assistance, including help in fieldwork and providing information about the experimental design of the silvicultural treatments. Thanks also go to Rafael Herrera from the Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela and two anonymous reviewers for critically reviewing the manuscript.

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  1. Research Group in Forest Science and Technology (Re-Forest), Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Medio Ambiente, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, S/N, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Luis Lado-Monserrat, Antonio Lidón & Inmaculada Bautista

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  1. Luis Lado-Monserrat
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  2. Antonio Lidón
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Correspondence to Luis Lado-Monserrat.

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Lado-Monserrat, L., Lidón, A. & Bautista, I. Litterfall, litter decomposition and associated nutrient fluxes in Pinus halepensis: influence of tree removal intensity in a Mediterranean forest. Eur J Forest Res 134, 833–844 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-015-0893-z

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