Gladkova G.A., Sibirina L.A., Omelko A.M., Zhmerenetskii A.A., Ukhvatkina O.N., Kuprin A.V.
Russian Journal of Ecology 2025; 56(6): 609-619
The study of the formation of tree litterfall is a necessary step in understanding the forest–soil system and features of the global biogeochemical cycle in forest biogeocenoses. The purpose of this paper was to assess the seasonal dynamics and spatial intrabiogeocenotic variation in the mass and fractional composition of tree litterfall in undisturbed korean-pine–broadleaved forests in the southern Sikhote-Alin (Primorskii krai). Litterfall, including needles, leaves, branches, and generative and other litterfall fractions, was collected from five permanent sample plots characterizing a mixed-shrub forest with yellow birch and linden from August 2023 to August 2024. Ten 0.5 m2 litter traps were placed on each sample plot. The average litterfall mass for the above-mentioned period was 4.74 ± 0.13 t/ha. Between 1974 and 1991, the annual litterfall input in similar biogeocenoses varied from 3.87 to 4.63 t/ha. The current slight excess of these long-term values is possibly associated with the extremely wet and warm summer seasons of 2023 and 2024, as well as with internal changes in the community structure...
