Eucalyptus and acacia species are widely used in agrosilviculture and reforestry practices. In order to evaluate the reconstitution of organic soil layers - i.e. the humic horizons -and establish relationships to the soil properties, the holorganic and hemiorganic horizons were sampled under Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus grandis plantations. These plantations lie in the tertiary tableland region in the North of Espírito Santo State, Brazil, and are part of the Natural reservation Area of the Vale do Rio Doce Company. Samples were collected in seven-year-old plantations in four seasons. Acacia mangium presented a higher litter stock (mean of 10 t ha-1) in both the L (undecomposed leaves) and the F layer (fragmented leaves) than Eucalyptus grandis (mean of 5 t ha-1). The foliar material of Acacia also presented smaller C/N ratios than Eucalyptus, almost half as small, due to higher nitrogen contents. In regard to the chemical analyses of carbon and nutrients, higher quantities of the elements were observed in the soil under Acacia mangium than under Eucalyptus grandis (e.g., carbon: 1.74 vs 1.23 dag kg-1 and calcium: 3.34 vs 2.75 cmol c kg-1). This set of results suggests that the organic contribution of Acacia mangium was responsible for higher organic matter and nutrient inputs in the soil than Eucalyptus grandis. However, when these data were compared to those found in studies of primary forest, carbon and nutrient soil contents in both plantations were smaller than in the forest, indicating that after seven years fertility and organic matter of the A11 horizon had not been reestablished in the plantations.
acacia; C/N ratio; decomposition; eucalyptus; litter
