Abstract:
Tropical mountain rainforest is the dominant vegetation type in Jianfengling, Hainan Island, and is an important part of the terrestrial forest ecosystem. Analysis of the long-term dynamics and influencing factors of litterfall production in Jianfengling could improve our understanding of how tropical forests respond to future climate and environmental changes. Based on a 60 hm
2 plot in the tropical mountain rainforest of Jianfengling, we continuously monitored litterfall production using 132 nylon mesh sampling traps from 2013 to 2017. All litterfall products were classified into leaves, branches, and debris to determine the seasonal dynamics and correlation between production and meteorological factors. Results showed that annual litter production ranged from 617.5 to 1084.7 g/m
2, with an average production of 768.6 g/m
2 per year. Average production of the litterfall products ranked leaves > branches > debris, with 507.9 g/m
2, 163.4 g/m
2, and 97.3 g/m
2 per year, respectively. Leaf litterfall was the dominant component, contributing 66.1% to total litterfall. The seasonal variation pattern of total production was irregular and showed three peaks, whereas litterfall production for each component showed two peaks, although the peak months differed. Total and component litterfall production were influenced by different meteorological factors. Branch litterfall had no significant relationship with any meteorological factor, whereas leaf litterfall was correlated with monthly minimum temperature and average temperature, debris litterfall was correlated with daily maximum temperature, and total litterfall was correlated with average temperature. Therefore, we identified three seasonal peaks in total litter production and determined that the dynamic changes in forest litterfall were influenced by various meteorological factors, especially extreme climate factors.