Fig. 3

Metallic element release rates from monospecific and mixed leaf litters of P. massoniana, C. funebris, and Q. variabilis during 360 days of decomposition (the values are presented as the means ± SEs, n = 3). The two-way ANOVA (the litter mixture treatment was treated as a nested factor) results suggest that the litter mixture treatment (F_(6,84) = 14.873 to 1098.045, P < 0.001) and decomposition time (F_(35,84) = 16.569 to 572.851, P < 0.001) have significant effects on the cumulative metallic element release rates. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) among different litter types for the same decomposition time