Table 1.
Main characteristics of the selected forest sites in this study.
Table 2.
Information on the litter composition for individual forest sites.
Figure 1.
Remaining amount of leaf litter dry mass, carbon, nitrogen and total lignin during decomposition under different forest system management practices.
Norway spruce age-class forest (blue, SA), European beech age-class forest (red, BA), European beech selective cut forest (green, BS) and unmanaged deciduous forest reserves dominated by European beech (black, BU) (mean ± SD, n = 3). Different letters indicate significant differences according to one-way ANOVA incorporating Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (from 89 DAI to 473 DAI).
Table 3.
Mean decay rate constants (k), coefficients of determination (r2) describing the fit of the decay model (P<0.05), and mean percentage of leaf remaining mass at the end of the study (473 days after incubation) under different forest system management practices.
Table 4.
Initial chemical composition of dried leaf litter under different forest management practices (Mean±SD, n = 3).
Figure 2.
C/N and total lignin/N ratios in leaf litter during 473 days of decomposition under different forest system management practices.
Norway spruce age-class forest (blue, SA), European beech age-class forest (red, BA), European beech selective cut forest (green, BS) and unmanaged deciduous forest reserves dominated by European beech (black, BU) (mean ± SD, n = 3). Different letters indicate significant differences according to one-way ANOVA incorporating Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (from 89 DAI to 473 DAI).
Figure 3.
Percent of initial magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) during decomposition under different forest system management practices.
Norway spruce age-class forest (blue, SA), European beech age-class forest (red, BA), European beech selective cut forest (green, BS) and unmanaged deciduous forest reserves dominated by European beech (black, BU) (mean ± SD, n = 3). Different letters indicate significant differences according to one-way ANOVA incorporating Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (from 89 DAI to 473 DAI).
Figure 4.
Mean ligninolytic enzyme activities in leaf litter under different forest system management practices.
Norway spruce age-class forest (blue, SA), European beech age-class forest (red, BA), European beech selective cut forest (green, BS) and unmanaged deciduous forest reserves dominated by European beech (black, BU) (mean+SD, n = 3). Different letters indicate significant differences according to one-way ANOVA incorporating Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (from 89 DAI to 473 DAI). *At 180 DAI, MnP activity of unmanaged deciduous forest reserves dominated by European beech = 0.
Table 5.
Effects of forest system management practice, days after incubation commenced and their interactions on ligninolytic enzyme activity (P<0.05).