Biology

Biodiversity

Litter

Plant litter

Ecoforestry

Forest floor

Environmental science

Biogeochemical cycle

Forest ecology

Secondary forest

Intact forest landscape

Forest management

Terrestrial ecosystem

Nutrient cycle

Ecology

Agroforestry

Ecosystem

Journal of Ecology and Environment

In the forest ecosystems, litterfall is an important component of the nutrient cycle that regulates the accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM), the input and output of the nutrients, nutrient replenishment, biodiversity conservation, and other ecosystem functions. Therefore, a profound understanding of the major processes (litterfall production and its decomposition rate) in the cycle is vital for sustainable forest management (SFM). Despite these facts, there is still a limited knowledge in tropical forest ecosystems, and further researches are highly needed. This shortfall of research-based knowledge, especially in tropical forest ecosystems, may be a contributing factor to the lack of understanding of the role of plant litter in the forest ecosystem function for sustainable forest management, particularly in the tropical forest landscapes. Therefore, in this paper, I review the role of plant litter in tropical forest ecosystems with the aims of assessing the importance of plant litter in forest ecosyste...

Role of litter production and its decomposition, and factors affecting the processes in a tropical forest ecosystem: a review