| Abstract: | The quantities of above ground biomass and nutrients accumulated by two eucalypt forests growing on rehabilitated bauxite mines in south-western Western Australia were determined. The plantation at one site was 7.5 years old and had no understorey. The plantation at the second site was 3.5 years old and had been sown with seed of leguminous understorey species, resulting in a dense understorey. Similar amounts of biomass had accumulated at the two sites. However, the second site, in which the legume understorey accounted for 67% of the total above ground biomass, had about three times as much nitrogen in its biomass as the site without an understorey. There was also more sulphur in the biomass at this site. There were similar amounts of other nutrients at both sites. The plantation with an understorey is considered more likely to develop into a forest similar to the eucalypt forest prior to mining than the plantation without an understorey. |
