influence of stemflow from standing dead trees on the fluxes of some ions in a mixed deciduous forest

Stemflow was collected from live and dead trees of trembling aspen, largetooth aspen, and maple from a mixed deciduous forest in Chalk River, Ontario, for each rain event occurring between May and August, 1984. The data showed that the chemistry of dead-tree stemflow is qualitatively different from that of live trees, with dead-tree stemflow contributing very large proportions of the total amounts of nitrate and phosphate available within the system. Given the increasing mortality of these tree species in the Chalk River area, dead-tree stemflows may assume major importance in influencing nutrient cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus within the forest.