Litter increase and organic carbon content in urban forest fragment

Abstract

Urban forest fragments produce numerous ecosystem services that directly contribute to improving the environmental quality of cities, such as the production of atmospheric oxygen, carbon fixation, nutrient cycling and nature conservation. The importance of these services should not be attributed exclusively to the tree component or its canopy, but to the entire set of components of a forest, including litter, which is responsible for the sustainability of the entire ecosystem. The objective of this research was to evaluate the contribution and the quantity and carbon content in different classes of litter deposited in a forest fragment located in Curitiba, Paraná. For this, 30 plots were distributed along a trail inside this fragment to collect the litter, between the autumn and winter months of 2019. The collected litter was separated and classified into: leaves; branches and barks; roots; reproductive structures and miscellaneous. The wet and dry weight of this material was determined and through a combustion carbon analyzer the carbon percentage was defined. The results indicate an amount of litter of 11.61 Mg/ha, with a predominance of branches and barks (6.30 Mg/ha). The average amount of carbon in this contribution corresponds to 5.08 Mg/ha and the average carbon content was significantly higher in the miscellaneous class (44.46%) in relation to the other litter classes. It is concluded that the evaluated forest fragment, despite being isolated and anthropized, presented an amount of litter and the amount and carbon content similar to those found in forests with less urban interventions, demonstrating that litter is an efficient parameter to assess the conservation status. these environments.