Abstract

The litter is an important way of returning the organic matter to the soil, through the cycling of the nutrients, aiding in the development of the vegetation present in the ecosystems. The study aimed to estimate the spatio-temporal variation of deposition, accumulation and decomposition of the litter present in the preserved caatinga vegetation, located in the RPPN Fazenda Tamanduá in Santa Terezinha-PB, Brazil and the interference of climatic variables in the dynamics of these events. The research was conducted at RPPN Fazenda Tamanduá, in Santa Terezinha-PB, Brazil. The deposition of litter on 20 collectors of 1.0 m × 1.0 m was collected monthly in two periods: period I (August/2015 to July/2016) and period II (August/2016 to July/2017), the collected material was separated into leaves, branches + barks, reproductive and miscellaneous fractions. To estimate the rate of decomposition the litter accumulated on the forest floor was quantified using a 0.5 m × 0.5 m metal frame. The deposition of the total litter in periods I and II was 2,356.83 kg ha^-1 and 1,163.67 kg ha^-1, respectively. The leaf fraction was the one that contributed the most during the two collection periods. The analysis of the data allowed to conclude that the total litter deposition in the two periods is in line with the average production for the Caatinga. The increase in precipitation provided higher deposition of litter after the rainy season. Due to several factors, the decomposition of litter in the caatinga is slower than in other biomes.

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