Litter decomposition and nutrients release patterns under Gmelina arborea based agroforestry system in Jabalpur region of Madhya Pradesh, India

An experiment was conducted to workout decomposition pattern and nutrients released by Gmelina arborea leaves under various tree-crop combinations in agroforestry system. Study consisted of four treatments (T₁ - G. arborea + pigeon pea, T₂ - G. arborea + cowpea-mustard, T₃ - G. arborea + greengram-mustard and T₄ - sole G. arborea) and each were replicated three times. The technique adopted to carry out this study was “Nylon bag technique”. The results revealed that mass loss of leaf litter was highest in T₄, followed by T₃, T₂ and T₁. It was concluded that with passage of time, nitrogen and phosphorous content in detritus leaf litter got substantially increased and found maximum in T₂, followed by T₃, T₁ and T₄. However, potassium showed decreasing trend with time period. Correlation and regression analysis showed that there are various environmental factors influencing the rate of decomposition pattern under agroforestry system.