Down dead wood in a montane beech forest stands on Deshat mountain. 3. Mineral composition

Abstract

Data on chemical composition of down dead wood is important for understanding decomposition processes in soil, the interacting role of the living organisms and biogeochemical cycles in general. This paper presents the results on the content and quantity of chemical elements (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Pb) in down dead wood in five montane beech forest stands on Deshat Mountain in Mavrovo National Park. The stands were selected to represent five different types of degradation and management practices in beech forests (from highly preserved forest stands with old thick standing trees and large numbers of fallen trees with accumulated biomass, to degraded forest stands represented by a resprouting trees and small amount of coarse biomass). The contents of analyzed elements was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Quantities of analyzed elements were calculated based on the concentration of elements in different size fractions and decay classes of logs and branches and the corresponding values of down dead wood biomass. The contents of elements is similar to other studies in beech forests with the exception of Ca that showed higher values in the studied beech forests on Deshat mountain. Following quantities of analyzed elements are stored in the down dead wood biomass as an average of five investigates beech forest stands: K - 10.353, Mg - 5.617, Ca - 94.224, Na - 0.723, Fe - 1.101, Mn - 1.117, Zn - 0.082, Cu - 0.026 and Pb - 0.048 kg·ha^-1. The highest quantities of all elements were recorded in the preserved forests. The quantities of K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe and Pb were generally higher in logs compared to branches. The rest of the elements (Mn, Na, Zn) showed higher quantities in branches.