Geochemical analysis of forest floor leaf litters of Madhupur Sal forest of Bangladesh

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in Lahoria and Rasulpur beats of Madhupur Sal forest of Bangladesh to study the geochemical analysis of forest floor leaf litters with varying stands. The study was followed by completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications. The experiment consisted of three treatments like pure stand, plantation stand and mixed stand. A quadrate sample of 10 × 10 m2 plot size was determined to collect the leaf litter samples from the forest floor for chemical analysis. The chemical properties of leaf litters such as organic carbon, total N, C: N, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, boron, iron and zinc were determined following standard methods. The result revealed that the organic carbon, C: N, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulphur, boron, iron and zinc content was the highest (39.04%, 59.12, 548.76 ppm, 0.53%, 745.74 ppm,0.25%, 50.75 ppm, 94.38 ppm and 36.31 ppm, respectively) in the mixed stand and the lowest (37.67%, 35.87, 293.26 ppm, 569.19 ppm, 0.22%, 27.77 ppm in case of organic carbon, C: N, phosphorus, magnesium, sulphur, zinc, respectively) both in the plantation stand and in the pure stand (0.30%, 37.57 ppm, 68.36 ppm in case of potassium, boron, iron, respectively). The content of total nitrogen was the highest (1.05%) in the plantation stand and the lowest (0.65%) in the pure stand while the content of calcium was the highest (0.32%) in the pure stand and the lowest (0.27%) was found both in the mixed stand and plantation stand. Therefore, it can be concluded that the geochemical characteristics of forest floor leaf litters of Madhupur Sal forest was well in the pure stand of natural forest (Sal tree) rather than the plantation forest (exotic tree species).