Stages of litter transformation in bog birch forests

In the litters (peaty, weakly decomposed, and strongly decomposed) of bog birch forests, the biochemical transformation of plant material includes several discrete stages. The best prediction of the decomposition stages is the set of indices characterizing the humus status of the soils: the C/N ratio, (ΣHA + ΣFA)/Cpolysaccharides, and the contents of humic and fulvic acids of fraction 1 in the groups of plant debris of different sizes. The discrimination of the litters according to the level of the biochemical transformation of the organic residues was observed when using the (ΣHA + ΣFA)/Cpolysaccharides ratio, which is 6.3 in the peaty litter and 11.2 and 18.4 in the weakly decomposed and strongly decomposed litters, respectively. The biochemical classification of litters in the bog birch forests is in agreement with the morphological classification of litters.