litterfall
nounEtymology From litter + fall.
1
Biology, Ecology, Natural sciences Usually Plant material that falls to the ground, such as leaves from trees.
- Litterfall is provided for as long as the mature forest exists.2008, Masami Miyaki, Koichi Kaji, “Shift to Litterfall as Year-Round Forage for Sika Deer after a Population Crash”, in Sika Deer, page 186:
2
Biology, Ecology, Natural sciences Usually The total mass of plant material falling to the ground per unit area, or the mass collected at a specific site.
- The remaining forest types had similar mean litterfalls ranging from 3333 to 6484 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹1986, K.A. Vogt et al., “Production, turnover, and nutrient dynamics of above- and belowground detritus of world forests”, in Advances in Ecological Research, volume 15, page 315: