Chemical Properties of the Forest Litter in Istria and the Croatian Littoral

The experiment was set up in the forest ecosystem with diverse vegetation zones in the area of Istria and the Croatian Littoral. Research included the following systematic soil units: lithic lepto-sols, rendzic leptosols, rendzic leptosols - eroded, mollic leptosols, chromic cambisol and chromic luvisols. The average quantity of the forest litter in the studied systematic soil units reaches 13.36 t/ha (Tables 1-3). The “wealth” of organic matter in the studied soil units can be presented with the following series: chromic cambisols (CMx) > mollic leptosols (LPm), organogenic, rendzic leptosols (LPk) > lithic leptosols (LPq) > chromic cambisols (CMx) - Terra rossa, chromic luvi-sols (LVx) > rendzic leptosols (LPk) - eroded. As expected, the lowest value of total nitrogen was found in the lithic leptosols in relation to almost all the other soils, except when compared with chromic cambisol and rendzic leptosols (p ⋋ 0.05). The statistically justified higher values of the percentage share of P₂O₅ in the forest litter were found in chromic luvisols and rendzic leptosols - eroded in relation to the other studied soils. Significantly higher level of copper contamination was inside rendzic leptosols - eroded in relation to the other studied soils. The exception is rendzic leptosols (p ⋋ 0.05). A significantly higher zinc content was detected in the lithic leptosols in relation to the other soil units, except for chromic luvisols, while a justifiably higher total lead and cadmium content in the forest litter was observed in chromic luvisols in relation to the other compared soils (p ⋋ 0.05).