Heterotrophic nitrogen fixation is a key ecosystem process in unpolluted, temperate old-growth forests of southern South America as a source of new nitrogen to ecosystems. Decomposing leaf litter is an energy-rich substrate that favours the occurrence of this energy demanding process. Following the niche ‘complementarity hypothesis’, we expected that decomposing leaf litter of a single tree spe...

Dead wood is a substantial carbon stock in terrestrial forest ecosystems and hence a critical component of global carbon cycles. Given the limited amounts of dead wood biomass and carbon stock information for Caribbean forests, our objectives were to: (1) describe the relative contribution of down woody materials (DWM) to carbon stocks on the island of St. John; (2) compare these contributions ...

Throughout the southeastern United States, Rhus and Ruhm species are common associates oI the southern pines on a wide array of upland site and stand conditions. Because of their ability to overrun disturbed sites, these species are categorized as competitors to pint during stand regeneration. Since prescribed burning is often used for site preparation in advance of pine regeneration, this stud...

The seasonality of litter insect abundance and its relationship with rainfall was analyzed in a wet evergreen forest on the windward side of south Western Ghats. Monthly litter samples were collected using Berlese funnels during 4 seasons of a year: southwest monsoon season June-August), northeast monsoon season (September-November), summer (March -May) and pre-summer season (December-February)...

General principles that shape community structure can be described based on a functional trait approach grounded on predictive models; increased attention has been paid to factors accounting for the functional diversity of species assemblages and its association with species richness along environmental gradients. We analyze here the interaction between leaf-litter ant species richness, the loc...

Riparian vegetation is the main source of leaves and the main energy source for low order streams. Therefore, changes in its composition affect the structure and processes in streams. We studied the contribution of the riparian vegetation by analysing the annual input of litter in deforested and forested areas of a tropical stream. The lateral, vertical (aerial) and horizontal (drift) litter in...

Deborah Lawrence. B.A. Harvard University. Ph.D. Duke University. Address: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, P. O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4123, USA. e-mail: [email protected] David Foster. B.A. Connecticut College. M.S. and Ph.D. University of Minnesota. Address: Harvard Forest, Harvard University, P. O. Box 68, Petersham, Massachusetts 01366...

Environ. Entomol. 13: 863-867 (1984) ABSTRACT' An electronic integrated-circuit thermometer with multiple probes (3 by 4 by 5 mm each) is described and was used to measure temperatures at the surface and at several depths in the forest litter of Norway spruce, Picea abies (L.) Karst., throughout 3 days in spring. The temperatures at the various depths were recorded on a single-pen recorder/volt...

In temperate portions of North America, some bats that remain active during winter undergo short periods of hibernation below leaf litter on the forest floor during episodes of below-freezing weather. These winter roosts may provide above-freezing conditions, but the thermal conditions under leaf litter are unclear. Further, little is known of the relationship between temperatures under litter ...

In view of growing interest in understanding how biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning, we investigated effects of riparian plant diversity on litter decomposition in forest streams. Leaf litter from 10 deciduous tree species was collected during natural leaf fall at two locations (Massif Central in France and Carpathians in Romania) and exposed in the field in litter bags. There were 35 s...