The chemical composition, food value, and decomposition of herbaceous plants, leaves, and leaf litter of floodplain forests

Structure and function of an ecosystem are determined to a large extent by its trophic dynamics (Lindeman 1942). Organic material produced by primary producers is processed by a suite of consumer and decomposer populations, the species composition and size of which depends upon the amount, quality and availability of the organic material (Boyd and Goodyear 1971). In Amazonian floodplains large amounts of non-woody biomass are available for primary consumers. Herbaceous plant communities produce up to 100 t ha−1 year−1 dry matter in the várzea. The floodplain forest of the várzea provides up to 13.6 t ha−1 year−1 leaf litter and that of the igapó up to 6.7 t ha−1 year−1 (Chaps. 8, 11). However, only a very small fraction is utilized by herbivorous animals