Understory prescribed burning is being suggested as a viable management tool for restoring degraded oak–pine forest communities in the southern Appalachians yet information is lacking on how this will affect ecosystem processes. Our objectives in this study were to evaluate the watershed scale effects of understory burning on total aboveground biomass, and the carbon and nitrogen pools in coars...

We investigated annual litterfall and leaf decomposition rate in a cerrado site. We collected woody plant litter monthly from April 2001 to March 2002 and from July 2003 to June 2004. We placed systematically 13 litter traps (0.5 x 0.5 m) in a line, 10 m one from the other. We sorted litter into 'leaves', 'stems', 'reproductive structures', and 'miscellanea' fractions, oven-dried them at 80 deg...

Scant information is available on how soil phosphorus (P) availability responds to atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, especially in the tropical zones. This study examined the effect of N addition on soil P availability, and compared this effect between forest sites of contrasting land-use history. Effects of N addition on soil properties, litterfall production, P release from decomposing lit...

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused serious radiocesium ((137)Cs) contamination of forest ecosystems located in mountainous and hilly regions with steep terrain. To understand topographic effects on the redistribution and accumulation of (137)Cs on forest floor, we investigated the distribution of Fukushima-derived (137)Cs in forest-floor litter layers on a steep hi...

Tree-based intercropping (TBI) systems, consisting of a medium to fast-growing woody species planted in widely-spaced rows with crops cultivated between tree rows, are a potential sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). TBI systems contribute to farm income in the long-term by improving soil quality, as indicated by soil carbon (C) storage, generating profits from crop plus tree production a...

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs Increased litterfall in tropical forests boosts the transfer of soil CO¡sub¿2¡/sub¿ to the atmosphere Journal Article Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse...

Aboveground litter inputs have been greatly altered by human disturbances and climate change, which have important effects on soil respiration. However, the knowledge of how soil respiration responds to altered litter inputs is limited in tropical and subtropical forests. We conducted an aboveground litterfall manipulation experiment in three successional forests in the subtropics to examine th...

The Amazon Basin experiences severe droughts that may become more common in the future. Little is known of the effects of such droughts on Amazon forest productivity and carbon allocation. We tested the prediction that severe drought decreases litterfall and wood production but potentially has multiple cancelling effects on belowground production within a 7-year partial throughfall exclusion ex...