Litter traps

Dear all, the protocol assumes litter traps should be 1.50m above the ground. However, as my field assistants are barely 1.50m tall, I was thinking about decreasing it to 1.20m. Is there any reason why 1.50m was the chosen height?

Cheers,
Erika

Dear All,

A new version of the RAINFOR-GEM manual is now out and here is the link: http://www.tobymarthews.com/rainfor-gem-manual-v30.html (it'll move across to the permanent URL at http://gem.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/page/resources very soon).

I hope this is useful!

Best regards,
Toby

Hi All,

I've just returned from a month in Gabon and am very happy to report that all 6 plots (2 in each of the 3 sites) are now fully installed and March/April will be the first month where all measurements are taken simultaneously within all plots. All three sites now have a team of 2 people working on data collection and analysis. During Yadvinder’s week-long stay, we visited all sites and completed installation of all under- and above-canopy weather stations at the same time as successfully dodging charging elephants. I’ve uploaded some photos from this trip – enjoy!

Best,
Sam

Hi all,

Does anyone know if there is any data from the Andean gradient on carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus content of dead leaves/leaf litter?

Dear Brigitte, Your point is very reasonable. The attached paper may be of interest. It should be possible to establish a correction factor based on temperature and collection intervals. We will post more information on how to do that as we look into it. Please let us know what you decide.

Yadvinder: Thanks for the answer. Another question: The decay is a problem for fine litter fall experiment, for that reason we must collect the material every 15 days. However, I think there is a small decay rate which is not considerate. Do we have any metodology for calculating this rate? I think we could be underestimating or overestimating our values of litter productivity in warm plots. What do you think about it?

Apologies for cross-posting: After much debate and revisions between here and Leeds, the new version (2.2) of the RAINFOR-GEM Intensive Plots manual has now been uploaded on a new subpage of http://gem.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/ (see "Resources" on the left).

This replaces the version 2.0 uploaded on GEM in February and also Dan Metcalfe's original v1.0 of the manual uploaded on http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/projects/rainfor/pages/manuals_eng.html (under “Measuring tropical forest carbon allocation and cycling”) and http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/ecodynamics/carbon-balance.php (under “Online Materials” halfway down).

Hope this is useful for everyone!
Toby

I like the Indian litter trap photo Toby posted. Might be best to try with netting first - it makes the collection of fallen material more accurate and probably lessens the chances of macrofauna pulling the litter into the soil.

Thanks Toby - this looks like a great method for resolving the 'elephant issue' with litter traps - do you happen to know what height they use for the metal edges? I wonder whether or not it would also work without any netting, but instead, simply clearing the ground within the metal traps of any leaf litter prior to data collection?

An update on the fine litter fall question: in India apparently people have generally moved over to metal litter traps like this one in Mudumalai: the four corner pegs of metal litter traps are driven into the ground -- with the frame staying at ground level -- thereby preventing elephants from removing them. Toby.

In answer to the litter trap question, I believe in Mudumalai in India they encountered the same problem with their elephants. Their litter traps are lines of marked stones on the ground which apparently works fine. If I can find a photo of one of these I'll post it here.

I've been talking with Sam who has just left Gabon and arrived in Ghana. In the Gabon sites (Lope and Ivindo) we have a bifg problem with elephants destroying about 75% of the litter traps every month.
We are looking into creative solutions, e.g. maybe having marked squares on the ground rather than litter traps, or greatly increasing the number of traps and just repairing them every month. Any other suggestions and ideas welcome.

The litter trap factory in Mondah Plot 1

Litter trap