The Litterfall in a Subtropical Rainforest t Fushan in Northern Taiwan
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Lin, Tien-Chuan
Abstract
Taiwan situates in the transition region between temperate and tropical areas and is disturbed by typhoons every year. The objects of this study were to examine the composition and patterns of litterfall, and to discuss the influence of typhoon disturbance in the Fushan 25-ha Forest Dynamic Plot. Furthermore, the amount of standing crop of forest floor was estimated.itterfall was collected weekly by fifty traps in Fushan FDP from October 2002 to September 2004. Fifty standing crops of litter on the forest floor were collected around each litterfall trap at 3-month intervals from May 2008 to February 2009. he annual amount of litterfall was 7.00 t ha-1. Comparing with other study sites, the annual amount of litterfall was slightly lower than those of subtropical forests and similar to those of tropical montane forests. Leaflitter accounted for 68.3% (4.78 t ha-1) of the total litter amount, followed by twig (17.3%, 1.21 t ha-1), debris (9.1%, 0.64 t ha-1) and reproductive bodies (5.2%, 0.37 t ha-1). Two main peaks of total annual litterfall were observed. One occurred during spring flushing from March to May and the other one occurred during the typhoon season from July to September. Leaffall of most species peaked during the former period, which is a commonly seen phenomenon in warm temperate evergreen forests. The latter peak was mainly contributed by the increased biomass of twigs.ll leaves were weighted and sorted into 117 species, belong to 54 families and 90 genera. The leaffall patterns varied considerably among species and could be grouped into five categories based on their leaf shedding peaks: pattern 1, amount of leaffall peaked during spring (March to April); pattern 2, leaffall peaked during late spring and summer (April to July); pattern 3, leaffall peaked during late autumn (October to November); pattern 4, mass leaffall right after typhoon; and pattern 5, irregularly oscillated amount of leaffall. The diverse leaffall patterns showed that the level of species may be more suitable than community to observe the complexity of the interaction between individuals and environmental factors in subtropical rainforests.mong six typhoons (Morakot, Dujuan, Melor, Mindulle, Aere and Haima) which passed through Taiwan during this two-year study, typhoon Dujuan had the greatest influence on the forest in terms of the amount of litterfall. The weekly amount of total litterfall, leaves, twigs and debris collected right after typhoon Dujuan accounted for 22.93%, 12.95%, 57.85% and 23.70% of the annual total amount (Oct. 2002-Sep. 2003), respectively. Of the amount of litter contributed by the disturbance of six typhoons, the proportion of twigs (61.31%) was greater than that of leaves (16.19%). The result revealed that the influence of typhoons on litterfall was mainly the increase of twig falling. he amount of standing crop of forest floor was 3.97 t ha-1. Leaflitter accounted for 59.6% (2.37 t ha-1) of the total litter amount, followed by twig (4.04%, 1.40 t ha-1).
Subjects
Litterfall
Flushing period
Stratum
Leaffall pattern
Forest floor
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