Investigation of throughfall and litterflow chemical characteristics of Quercus castaneifolia in the mixed stand (Case study:Shaskolateh forest)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of throughfall (TF) and litterflow (LF) on oak (Quercus castaneifolia C.A.Mey.) and their monthly changes in the mixed stands located in district one of Shastkolate forest, Golestan province. For this purpose, TF and LF samples were collected after each rainfall (RF) in a one-year period and their content of Na+, K+ and Ca2+ compared with the RF using by T-Test at the 95% of confidence level. Also, monthly variation of cations was investigated using by one way variance analysis. The results showed that the amounts of K+ and Ca2+ leaching in TF (226.61 and 13.86 kg ha-1 year-1) were significantly higher than those in RF (217.72 and 10.97 kg ha-1 year-1). Amounts of Na+ leaching in TF (120.38 kg ha-1 year-1) and LF (108.58 kg ha-1 year-1) were lower than it in RF. Also nutrient leaching of TF and LF in various months were different significantly. The lowest and highest leaching was observed in September and October. The results of this study showed that oak trees have a positive effect on the increase of soluble nutrients in forest soil through TF and LF, because plants are able to absorb soluble nutrients as soon as penetrate in the soil and insert them to their nutrient cycle, so using it correctly in afforestation, can improve the quality of soil nutrients in short time.