Monteverde : Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest

Figure 9.16. Measured and calculated rates of biomass and nutrient change of intercepted litterfall of litter material
in tethered bags in the canopy, as a percentage of orginal mass or amount of nutrients from September 1987 to
September 1988. Open circles shows the percentage of the original biomass (mean ± 1 SE) and nutrient content of the
original material contained in tethered litterbags. Filled circles show calculated amounts of leaves remaining after leaf
attrition (loss of whole leaves from the canopy, /.„). Open triangles are amounts of material remaining as a function of
the integration of leaf attrition and leaf decomposition (Ld). (From Nadkarni and Matelson 1991)