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Nutrient stocks in a subtropical eucalypt forest, North Stradbroke Island
Author(s) -
WESTMAN W.E,
ROGGERS R. V.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1977.tb01160.x
Subject(s) - nutrient , understory , sclerophyll , biomass (ecology) , tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests , environmental science , forest ecology , eucalyptus , phosphorus , agroforestry , soil water , subtropics , ecosystem , ecology , biology , canopy , chemistry , mediterranean climate , organic chemistry
The concentrations and quantities of eleven essential plant nutrients in a 15 m tall Eucalyptus signata dominated forest have been determined. This forest of 180 habiomass is supported on one of the most phosphorus‐deficient forest soils yet reported. The ecosystem is also particularly low in calcium, and relatively abundant in nitrogen. The nutrient stocks in the sclerophyllous heath understorey are only slightly more than half the quantity expected on the basis of their proportion of the total forest biomass occupied by this stratum. This lends some confirmatory evidence to the idea that the heath understorey of eucalypt forests is a separately evolved synusia adapted to soils of low fertility. Partitioning of nutrients among plant parts on this forest differs in a number of respects from other forests studied. This suggests the lack of strong selective pressure towards convergence of strategy between formations in the manner of partitioning of nutrients among forest components.