Ekológia (Bratislava) (Aug 2014)

Chemical Properties of the Forest Litter in Istria and the Croatian Littoral

  • Špoljar Andrija,
  • Barčić Damir,
  • Peremin Volf Tomislava,
  • Husnjak Stjepan,
  • Ivica Martinović

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2478/eko-2014-0023
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 33, no. 3
pp. 242 – 251

Abstract

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The experiment was set up in the forest ecosystem with diverse vegetation zones in the area of Istria and the Croatian Littoral. Research included the following systematic soil units: lithic lepto-sols, rendzic leptosols, rendzic leptosols - eroded, mollic leptosols, chromic cambisol and chromic luvisols. The average quantity of the forest litter in the studied systematic soil units reaches 13.36 t/ha (Tables 1-3). The “wealth” of organic matter in the studied soil units can be presented with the following series: chromic cambisols (CMx) > mollic leptosols (LPm), organogenic, rendzic leptosols (LPk) > lithic leptosols (LPq) > chromic cambisols (CMx) - Terra rossa, chromic luvi-sols (LVx) > rendzic leptosols (LPk) - eroded. As expected, the lowest value of total nitrogen was found in the lithic leptosols in relation to almost all the other soils, except when compared with chromic cambisol and rendzic leptosols (p ⋋ 0.05). The statistically justified higher values of the percentage share of P2O5 in the forest litter were found in chromic luvisols and rendzic leptosols - eroded in relation to the other studied soils. Significantly higher level of copper contamination was inside rendzic leptosols - eroded in relation to the other studied soils. The exception is rendzic leptosols (p ⋋ 0.05). A significantly higher zinc content was detected in the lithic leptosols in relation to the other soil units, except for chromic luvisols, while a justifiably higher total lead and cadmium content in the forest litter was observed in chromic luvisols in relation to the other compared soils (p ⋋ 0.05).

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