The Importance of Leaching from Litter Collected in Litterfall Traps

Litterfall (LF) is usually collected by means of opentraps. However, this litter will be subject toleaching by the throughfall which passes through theaccumulated litter in the traps. The nutrients lostduring this leaching are not taken into account in thecalculation of LF nutrient fluxes. We report theresults from a 2-month (August–September) studycarried out in 8 northern coniferous forest stands toassess the possible importance of leaching from litterin LF traps. Compared to throughfall (TF), thelitterfall leachate (LFL_gross), which includes athroughfall component, had significantly (p < 0.05)higher concentrations and fluxes of Ca, Mg, Na and S.The average net LFL (i.e., LFL_net = LFL_gross-TF) fluxes were 21 (Ca), 7 (Mg), 57 (K), 10 (Na), 10 (N), and 19 (S) mg m^-2 mo^-1. LFL_net accounted for 42%, 37% and 50% of the LFL_gross flux, and for 91%, 51% and 49% of the total litterfall flux (i.e.,LF + LFL_net) of Na, S and K, respectively. ForCa, Mg and N, the LFL_net flux accounted for 64%,58% and 29% of the LFL_gross flux, and for< 14% of the total litterfall flux. Compared to TF,LF was the dominant return pathway for Ca, Mg and N tothe forest floor regardless of whether LFL_net wasincluded or not. However, for K and S, takingLFL_net into account determined whether TF or LFwas the dominant pathway. TF remained the dominantpathway for Na even when LFL_net was included.