Abstract:Litter nutrient content in forest ecosystems usually has significantly temporal and spatial heterogeneity. To explore the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of leaf-litter nutrients and their influencing factors in karst evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest, this paper took the litter collected by 151 litter collectors in 25 hectares dynamic monitoring plot of karst evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest in Mulun, Guangxi. We selected the litter for 12 months to analyze their element content. The results showed that the order of element content in leaf litter was C>Ca>N>Mg>K>S>P,which were 471.85-496.33, 20.27-28.29, 17.34-23.10, 2.79-5.49, 1.80-4.38, 1.82-2.22, and 0.96-1.21g/kg, respectively, showing a distribution pattern of high calcium and magnesium contents and low phosphorus and potassium contents. Among them, the contents of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and calcium all appeared large values in April, while potassium and magnesium appeared the maximum values in January. The effects of biological factors on leaf-litter content were basically same at the 5m and 10m neighborhood scales, but the effects of topographic and soil factors on the elemental content of leaf-litter were more pronounced at the 10m scale. Within a 10m neighborhood, the cumulative interpretation rate of phosphorus element was the highest, reaching 80.27%, while the cumulative interpretation rate of carbon element was the lowest with only 10.49%. Both altitude and slope had strong effects on the content of leaf-litter elements. The rock outcrop rate and iron content in the soil also greatly influenced the content of leaf-litter elements to a certain extent. In conclusion, there were significant differences in leaf-litter nutrient content between different months in karst evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest, and elevation and slope at the 10m scale were the main causes of spatial variation in nutrient content of leaf-litter.