Forest Floor Leaf Litter

The forest floor also called detritus duff and the o horizon is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem.

Forest floor leaf litter.

This blanket of dead organic matter provides homes and nesting material for many small mammals and birds. It mainly consists of shed vegetative parts such as leaves branches bark and stems existing in various stages of decomposition above the soil surface. Leaf litter which consists of the dead leaves and other debris that fall to the floor of a forest is a home for many living things. 1 mainly contains decomposing plant material such as leaves bark branches and stems.

Here in the leaf litter millions of small organisms fungi and bacteria springtails and mites spiders and centipedes and others are all part of a rich food web. The consequences for litter decomposition and forest floor c storage at the ecosystem scale remain largely unexplored. As a home for many different invertebrates leaf litter is an important foraging space for birds small mammals and carnivorous insects. Litter fall in terrestrial ecosystems signifies a crucial pathway for nutrient return to the soil.

Leaf tissue can account for more than 70 of above ground litter fall in forests and the rest is composed of stems small twigs and propagative structures robertson and paul 1999. Under a canopy of trees the forest floor is a cool damp and protected environment. Leaf litter activities focus. In many forests leaf litter is fragmented and mixed into the lower layers of the soil within 1 year of abscission.

The top layer of litter which makes up a few centimeters is known as the litter layerorlitter horizon. Recent evidence indicates that the plasticity of an oak tree species can lead to a decline in its leaf litter quality and decomposability following thinning. Most of these can still be easily identified. Forest floor of a temperate broadleaf forest showing leaf litter.

Forest litter raking leaf litter accumulation depends on factors like wind decomposition rate and species composition of the forest. Incorporation of specific types of materials from the forest floor into lower soil horizons is related to stand age and the community composition of earthworms. All the leaves twigs feathers insect parts and other debris that falls on the forest floor form the leaf litter a very important part of the forest. It contains the leaves that have fallen most recently.

The leaf litter found in primary forests is more abundant deeper and holds more humidity than in secondary forests. The forest floor also known as the o horizon of the soil profile or the litter layer fig.