Organic acids in forest litters play important role in forests and forest soils. Based on the fresh litter materials of Fraxinus mandshurica and Larix olgensis forest in northeast China, a capillary gas chromatography procedure was established to determine organic acids in forest litters. Organic acids in forest litter were lixiviated and derived into corresponding esters with 7∶100 (v:v) H 2SO 4∶CH 3OH at 60℃, extracted in CHCl 3 and analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) system. It resulted that, the method reported in this paper to separate, identify and determine organic acids in forest litter by GC was reliable and easy to operate. The disposal of sample was convenient, and the esterification with CH 3OH occurred while extracting organic acids with the same reagent, so volatilization loss of low-molecular-weight organic acids and oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids were avoided in course of condensation and esterification at high temperature when the conventional method to determine organic acids was used. Good selectivity was obtained, low-molecular-weight organic acids and high fatty acids could be determined simultaneously and accurately. Recovery of thirteen organic acids detected by adding standard samples ranged from 84.66% to 97.45% with relative standard deviation from 1.53% to 8.54%, and lowest detection limit of different organic acids was in range of 0.39 to 6.46 ng. The method could be used to determine organic acids in forest litters with satisfactory results.
Larch (Larix olgensis), Manchurian ash (Fraxinus mandshurica), Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) and White birch (Betula platyphylla) are the major planting species in northeast China. The samples of forest litters were collected from the stands of the above 4 species in Laoyeling and Jianlagou experiment stations of Maorshan Exp. Forest Farm (45?2-45?0N, 127?0-127?8E), Northeast Forestry University, in early October 2002. Quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis were carried out on the organic acids existing in freshly fallen litters (L layer) and hemi-decomposed litters (F layer) of the four forest species by using Gas Chromatogram system. A wide variety of organic acids were identified, including oxalic, malonic, fumaric, succinic, maleic, malic, citric, C16:0, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2, C18:3 and C20:0 acids. In respect of L litters of all samples, the oxalic acid content (over 30 mg/g) was the highest of the seven low-molecular-weight organic acids identified, while the content of oleic or linoleic (above 40 mg/g) was found to be highest among the six high aliphatic acids identified. As to F litters, oxalic acid content was also the highest, followed by linoleic and oleic. For the same tree species or the same forest, the kinds and contents of organic acids in L litters were more abundant than that in F litters.
