MINERAL NUTRIENT CONTENT OF SOME FOREST PLANT LEAVES AND OF THE HUMUS LAYER AS RELATED TO SITE QUALITY

Abstract

The nutrient content of the humus and of some of the plants characteristic of different site classes has been studied. Analyses carried out on fresh healthy leaf material from typical forest plants indicated no differences within a given species that could be related to site quality. Available nutrient content of the A0 horizon collected in the same environment is, however, closely related to the productivity of the sites. It seems, therefore, that the differential accumulation of nutrient elements in the cells of the forest plants studied depends upon the inherent properties of the species rather than on the quantity of available nutrients in the humus on which they grow.