Evaluating humus forms variation in an unmanaged mixed beech forest using two different classification methods

doi:10.3832/ifor0632-005

Evaluating humus forms variation in an unmanaged mixed beech forest using two different classification methods

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 5, Issue 5, Pages 272-275 (2012)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0632-005
Published: Oct 24, 2012 - Copyright © 2012 SISEF

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Humus is an important part of terrestrial ecosystems and can be considered as an indicator of ecosystem functioning status. Morphologic method is an inexpensive and easy way to study humus forms. This study investigated two morphological methods that have been applied in beech stands of Hyrcanian forest and compared them to assess which one is more appropriate for these ecosystems. Therefore an unmanaged beech stand was selected and 320 humus profiles were considered in it. In each profile the humus form was determined as to suborder level according to two morphological methods. The results showed that the average thickness of organic and organo-mineral horizons (OL, OF, OH and Ah) in the study site was 2, 0.6, 0.3 and 3.6 cm, respectively. Also the two different morphological methods used in the study site had different functions and outputs. According to both methods the Mull order was the dominant humus form in the study site. The number of humus suborders found in the study site was different in the two methods and indicates their different ability in describing humus forms in the study site

Keywords

Humus Classification, Mixed Beech Forests, Hyrcanian Forest, Organic Horizons

Authors’ address

(1)

Faculty of Forest Sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan (Iran)

Corresponding author

SM Waez-Mousavi
waezmousavi@gau.ac.ir

Citation

Waez-Mousavi SM, Habashi H (2012). Evaluating humus forms variation in an unmanaged mixed beech forest using two different classification methods. iForest 5: 272-275. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0632-005

Academic Editor

Alberto Santini

Paper history

Received: Dec 04, 2011
Accepted: Sep 27, 2012

First online: Oct 24, 2012
Publication Date: Oct 30, 2012
Publication Time: 0.90 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

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