Pearson’s correlation coefficients (<i>r</i>) between elevation and biotic or abiotic factors in decomposing litter.

<p>An asterisk (*) indicates significant difference at <i>P</i><0.05.</p><p>Abbreviations: FTCs = numbers of soil freeze-thaw cycles, MBC = microbial biomass carbon, MBN = microbial biomass nitrogen, MBP = microbial biomass phosphorus, and ACPA = acid (pH 6.5) phosphatase (ACP) activity. An asterisk (*) indicates statistically significant (<i>P</i><0.05).</p

Concentrations of leaf litter microbial biology, activity of sucrase and acid phosphatase at different elevations after every sampling date.

<p>Abbreviations: MBC = microbial biomass carbon (A), MBN = microbial biomass nitrogen (B), MBP = microbial biomass phosphorous (C), bacterial biomass (D), fungal biomass (E) sucrase A = Sucrase activity (F) and ACPA = acid (pH 6.5) phosphatase activity (G).</p

Pearson’s correlation coefficients (<i>r</i>) between biotic or abiotic factors and decomposition rate (<i>k</i>).

<p>An asterisk (*) indicates significant difference at <i>P</i><0.05.</p><p>Abbreviations: FTCs = numbers of soil freeze-thaw cycles, MBC = microbial biomass carbon, MBN = microbial biomass nitrogen, MBP = microbial biomass phosphorus, and ACPA = acid (pH 6.5) phosphatase (ACP) activity.</p

Basic geography, vegetation and soil along the four subalpine and alpine forests in the Bipenggou Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China.

<p>Basic geography, vegetation and soil along the four subalpine and alpine forests in the Bipenggou Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China.</p

Results of the two-way ANOVA for the effects of elevation and species treatments and their interactions on the leaf litter decomposition rate (<i>k</i>).

<p>Bold <i>P</i>-values indicate significant effects (<i>P</i><0.05).</p

Partitioning of deviance in the decomposition rate during each stage calculated with a partial regression method.

<p>In the figure, a and c are the independent components attributed to two groups of biotic factors (litter chemistry and microbe-related factors), respectively; b is the covariance in a component of the two groups; and d is the residual deviance. The group 1 consists of litter chemical variables, whilst the group 2 is the microbe-related factors. See details of these partial regressions in the Material and Methods section.</p

Percentage of biomass remaining of leaf litter (A) and the decomposition rate (<i>k</i>) during each stage of decomposition at the four elevations (B).

<p>Insert figure is the <i>k</i> values of the 2 year of decomposition (means ± SE, n = 5) and different letters denote significant differences at <i>P</i><0.05.</p

Variations of surface soil temperature (A), mean seasonal soil temperature (columns) and numbers of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) (dots) (B) during each stage of decomposition at the four study sites (elevations).

<p>Variations of surface soil temperature (A), mean seasonal soil temperature (columns) and numbers of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) (dots) (B) during each stage of decomposition at the four study sites (elevations).</p