Litter production and decomposition of mangrove in the Northern Coast of Aceh Besar district, Aceh province

Abstract

Mangrove vegetation plays an important role and supplier of organic matter derived from litter fall and litter decomposition The purposes of this research was to obtain the productivity of mangrove vegetation by analyzing the litter fall, decomposition coefficient, and percentage of litter decomposed in the northern coast of Aceh Besar District. The research used purpossive sampling method to determine the 6 stations devided into 2 substations (landward and seaward). This research was conducted in July to September 2016. Each substation was put one of the litter trap. The litter trap method was used to know the mangrove litter production. Litter decomposition focused on R. mucronata leaves were studied by using litterbag technique. The litter bags were made of synthetic nylon which had size 20cm x 30cm and mesh size was 1 x 1.25 mm2. There were 3 types of mangrove found, litter production of Rhizophora mucronata as much as 79.21 g/m2/day, Avicennia marina as much as 0.70 g/m2/day and Sonneratia alba was 17.46 g/m2/day. Based on the substation influenced by tidal, mangrove litters found in the seaward higher than in the landward, the average litter fall was 52.05 g/m2/day and 43.32 g/m2/day. Result of mangrove decomposition showed that the percentage of decomposition for the 49th day in the seaward substation was 48.58% and the landward was 41.53%. Mangrove litter decomposition increased during the time at both substation. Decomposition rate of litter for Rhizopora mucronata species classified very quickly where the substation on the seaward was 0.012 (d-1) and landward was 0.010 (d-1). The half-time took in the leaf litter of mangroves for the landward was 69 days and seaward was 57 days, R. mucronata leaves litter decomposited in seaward substation was faster than landward.