litterfalls

Noun

litterfall (usually uncountable, plural litterfalls)

1. (usually) Plant material that falls to the ground, such as leaves from trees.
   • Litterfall is provided for as long as the mature forest exists.2008, Masami Miyaki, Koichi Kaji, “Shift to Litterfall as Year-Round Forage for Sika Deer after a Population Crash”, in Sika Deer, page 186
2. (countable, usually) The total mass of plant material falling to the ground per unit area, or the mass collected at a specific site.
   • The remaining forest types had similar mean litterfalls ranging from 3333 to 6484 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹1986, K.A. Vogt et al., “Production, turnover, and nutrient dynamics of above- and belowground detritus of world forests”, in Advances in Ecological Research, volume 15, page 315