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Mor humus is a form of forest floor humus occurring mostly in coniferous forests. [1] Mor humus consists of evergreen needles and woody debris that litter the forest floor. This litter is slow to decompose , in part due to their chemical composition (low pH, low nutrient content), but also because of the generally cool and wet conditions where ...
Moss layer on the forest floor. This layer contains mostly non-woody vegetation, or ground cover, growing in the forest with heights of up to about one and a half metres. The herb layer consists of various herbaceous plants (therophytes, geophytes, cryptophytes, hemicryptophytes), dwarf shrubs (chamaephytes) as well as young shrubs or tree ...
The forest floor can consist of bare soil, short vegetation (like grasses, mosses, creeping vegetation, etc.) or litter (i.e. leaves, twigs, or small branches). [ 1 ] This throughfall is especially rich in nutrients which makes its redistribution into the soil is an important factor for the ecology and water demand of surrounding vegetation. [ 2 ]
The term humus form is not the same as the term humus. Forest humus form describes the various arrangement of organic and mineral horizons at the top of soil profiles. [ 1 ] It can be composed entirely of organic horizons, meaning an absence of the mineral horizon. [ 2 ]
Moder is a forest floor type formed under mixed-wood and pure deciduous forests. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Moder is a kind of humus whose properties are the transition between mor humus and mull humus types. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Moders are similar to mors as they are made up of partially to fully humified organic components accumulated on the mineral soil.
The forest floor, the bottom-most layer, receives only 2% of the sunlight. Only plants adapted to low light can grow in this region. Away from riverbanks , swamps and clearings, where dense undergrowth is found, the forest floor is relatively clear of vegetation because of the low sunlight penetration.
The fourth layer is the shrub layer beneath the tree canopy. This layer is mainly populated by sapling trees, shrubs, and seedlings. The fifth and final layer is the herb layer which is the forest floor. The forest floor is mainly bare except for various plants, mosses, Lycopods and ferns. The forest floor is much more dense than above because ...
The forest canopy layer supports a diverse range of flora and fauna. It has been dubbed "the last biotic frontier" as it provides a habitat that has allowed for the evolution of countless species of plants, microorganisms, invertebrates (e.g., insects), and vertebrates (e.g., birds and mammals) that are unique to the upper layer of forests. [ 12 ]