Table 1.

Results of a three-way repeated-measures ANOVA (F and P values) testing for the effects of forest type, stand age, decomposition time and their interactions on mass loss and leaf litter C and N loss from litterbags decomposed in soils in the Chinese fir and naturally occurring secondary forest stands.

Variation	df	Mass loss (%)a		kb		Litter C lossa		Litter N lossb
		F	P	F	P	F	P	F	P
Forest type (F)	1	130.87	< 0.001	75.523	< 0.001	104.318	< 0.001	166.884	< 0.001
Stand age (A)	7	5.58	< 0.001	4.528	< 0.001	3.684	0.001	19.292	< 0.001
Time (T)	6	1865.39	< 0.001	255.057	< 0.001	1059.478	< 0.001	889.353	< 0.001
F × A	8	0.333	0.952	1.361	0.217	0.441	0.895	1.204	0.299
F × T	6	16.58	< 0.001	4.767	< 0.001	14.963	< 0.001	10.215	< 0.001
A × T	42	1.72	0.011	2.085	0.001	1.645	0.018	1.96	0.003
F × A × T	62	186	< 0.001	28.17	< 0.001	107.2	< 0.001	101.48	< 0.001

^aPlot was not a significant random factor and was dropped from the model.

^bPlot was a significant random factor and included in the model.