Abstract

The study of nutrient cycling through precipitation pathways in Diospyros crassiflora plantation was conducted in the Humid Forest Research Station, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria between 2016 and 2017.The experiment was 3 x 9 x 2 split- split plot design in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Treatments were precipitation pathways (rainfall, throughfall and stemflow), sampling periods (9 months) in the year (2016 and 2017). Result of Precipitation pathways in stemflow, throughfall and rainfall reveals the presence of macro- nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, micro- chlorine, iron, lead, sodium elements and pH-value in D. crassiflora. Stemflow and rainfall gave significantly the highest and the least nutrient contents. Nutrient released in the precipitation pathways were in the following significant order: stemflow > throughfall > rainfall. The study showed that precipitation pathways could be channels through which nutrients are released into the forest ecosystem.

Key Words: Diospyros crassiflora, Precipitation pathways, Nutrient cycling, Mineral elements, Plantation