Letter to the Editor

[First paragraph...]
Volumes 21 and 22 of the Proceedings of the New Zealand Ecological Society contain correspondence^{l, 2, 3} regarding nutrient relationships in forest soils in New Zealand with particular reference to Figure 2 of "An Ecological Approach to New Zealand's Future". The latest letter in this correspondence³ contains an implied claim that while concentrations of nutrients in a forest litter are higher than that in the mineral soil, amounts of nutrients are always considerably less. Data from the study of Miller⁵ are used to support this claim. I believe that most readers would assume from the very definite manner in which this claim is made, that this is a universal characteristic of New Zealand forest soils. This is not so.