Leaf litter production and decomposition of native forest and Leucaena sp. systems in Codazzi, Cesar

Indiscriminate forest logging is associatedwith soil erosion processes, due, among otherfactors, to the interruption of the recyclingprocess. By this mechanism, plant species,individually or in community, can contributewith the nutrient return to agroecosystems.The purpose of this research was to evaluatethe leaf liter production and decompositionand to determine the factors involved.Leaf litter production and decomposition,identification and quantification of soilorganisms were done. The relationshipbetween environmental factors and leaf fallwas analyzed by the Pearson correlationcoefficient. For leaf decomposition, regressionanalysis was performed. Estimated leaf litterproduction was 16.7 and 13.2 t/ha/yr in atropical dry secondary and a Leucaena sp.system, respectively. At the forest systemno significant correlation was found fortemperature, humidity and precipitation withleaf liter, but a significant correlation wasfound for wind. The greater component ofthe necromass was due to leaf, correspondingto 62.2% and 73.5% in the forest and theLeucaena sp. system respectively. The highestdensity of organism was found at the dryforest, increased during the wet season in bothsystems and decreased with soil depth. Highdecomposition rates were registered in bothsystems and followed an exponential model.The highest rate was recorded at the Leucaenasp. system with 7.8 x 10–5 t/ha/yr.