Fig 1.
Mass remaining weights (%) of decomposing litter in three water levels in the nutrient control treatment (a) and nutrient enrichment treatment (b) during the experimental period.
Data represent means ± SD (n = 5). * indicates significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different water levels, the time points in the red box indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different nutrient enrichment treatments, LSD test.
Fig 2.
The dynamics of decomposing litter nutrient concentrations (%) of C, N, and P in the three water levels in the nutrient control treatment (a, b, c) and the nutrient enrichment treatment (d, e, f) during the experimental period.
Data represent means ± SD (n = 5). * indicates significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different water levels, the time points in the red box indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different nutrient enrichment treatments, LSD test.
Fig 3.
The nutrients release (%) of decomposing litter in the three water levels in the nutrient control treatment (a, b, c) and the nutrient enrichment treatment (d, e, f) during the experimental period.
Data represent means ± SD (n = 5). * indicates significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different water levels, the time points in the red box indicates significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different nutrient enrichment treatments, LSD test.
Fig 4.
Changes in the C/N (a, d), N/P (b, f), and C/P (c, e) ratios of decomposing litter in the nutrient control treatment (a, b, c) and the nutrient enrichment treatment (d, e, f) during the experimental period. Data represent means ± SD (n = 5).
* indicates significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different water levels, the time points in the red box indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different nutrient enrichment treatments, LSD test.
Table 1.
Decomposition rate (K, day-1) of plant litter after 7 and 70 days of decomposition and the ANOVA results of K response to water level change, nutrient enrichment and their interactions.
Fig 5.
The real-time decomposition rate (Ki, day-1) of litter in three water levels in the nutrient control treatment (a) and the nutrient enrichment treatment (b).
Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different water levels, the time points in the red box indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 level in different nutrient enrichment treatments, LSD test.
Fig 6.
Relationships between real-time decomposition rates at time i (Ki) and C concentration of the litter at time i-1 in this experiment.
Fig 7.
The box diagrams of C release/N release ratio in three water levels in the nutrient control treatment (a) and nutrient enrichment treatment (b).
And the box diagrams of C release/N release in two nutrient enrichment treatments in 5 cm (c), 15 cm (d) and 25 cm (e) water levels.
Table 2.
Results of stepwise-regression analyses of C release/N release ratio with the nutrient concentration and stoichiometric ratios of decomposing litter during the litter decomposition process.