Investigations on decomposition of foliage of woody species using perfusion method.

Abstract

The overall rate of decomposition can be described by the time taken for half of the total oxidizable carbon to be converted into CO2 and other gaseous products. The rate of decomposition depended on the species. The overall rate was in decreasing order:- Leucaena > Calliandra > Gliricidia > Prosopis > Cassia Figure 2 shows that decomposi~ion started rapidly and then decreased rapidly for 2 to 3 weeks followed by a gradual decrease which continued for the remainder of the time. The time for 50 per cent of the total oxidizable carbon to decompose was about 19 days for Leucaena,30 days for Calliandra and Gliricidia, while Prosopis and Cassia took more than 30 days (Figure 3). Leucaena released the greatest qu~ntit~ of total- N into solution while Cassia gave the lowest amount. The remaining species gave significantly higher amounts than Cassia.