On average a hectare of woodland produces 5 tonnes of organic debris per annum.

I asked myself the simple question - What is the weight of leaf litter produced by deciduous woodland? An almost unhealthy amount of google searches later and I am still none the wiser, there is no simple answer it seems.

Coarse woody debris

In the course of my search I did come across numbers for the organic debris generated by broadleaf woodland. Again there's no specific number, it depends on the nature of the woodland, the age of trees and a multitude of other factors. Organic debris encompasses the shedding of overtopped branches, leaf fall, seed casings, wind thrown branches, fallen trees, snags etc. There are figures published for the organic debris produced annually for a hectare of woodland ranging from a high of 25 t/yr down to a low of 2 t/yr, several sources settle on a hectare of broadleaved woodland producing 5 t/yr as a reasonable average figure for the organic debris produced.

Black bulgar (bulgaria inquinans)

I also discovered the ecological importance of organic debris in providing a habitat for a surprisingly large number of invertebrates, bryophytes and fungi, in short the biodiversity of a wood is proportional to the quantity of organic debris, age of the wood and trees within it. Veteran trees with their associated deadwood play host to a number of rare species,