Litterfall, Carbon and Nutrient Returns in Stands of Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. Subhumid Tropics of Eastern India

摘要

The study was conducted in a nine-year old Ceiba pentandra (L) Gaertn. stands planted in a three tree spacing 4 x 4 m, 4 x 6 m and 4 X 8 m and two pruning regimes. Litterfall samples were collected from the field of C. pentandra for 12 months. The litterfall occurred throughout the year showing significant differences between tree spacing, pruning regimes and months. Total litterfall includes tree components (leaf litter + wood litter + flower litter + pod litter) ranged from 0.451 to 1.153 Mg ha ' throughout the year. Total litterfall followed unimodal pattern with highest peak in April and lowest in August. In different tree spacings, total monthly litterfall, leaf litter contributed from 59 to 60 %, wood litter from 30 to 31.6 %. flower litter from 2.4 to 3.0 % and pod litter from 6.2 to 6.8 %. Litterfall was significantly higher in 4 x 4 m and lower in 4 x 8 m tree spacing. The study showed that litterfall was strongly and positively correlated with temperature and negatively correlated with relative humidity. The C. pentandra stands with high density returned highest amount of C and nutrients to soil.