Fig. 2.

Soil respiration, net N mineralization, and microbial biomass N as a function of litter chemical composition (Top), litter chemical diversity (H′_C) (Middle), and plant species richness (Bottom). (Top) Predicted values were derived from multiple regression models that used PC axis scores and their interactions as independent variables. Results for net N mineralization and microbial biomass N multiple regressions were obtained using natural log-transformed response variables, but untransformed data are graphed for comparison purposes. Gray lines represent the hypothetical 1:1 relationship between observed values and predicted values from the models. (Middle) The linear regression of soil respiration as a function of litter chemical diversity was performed using natural log-transformed response data, but untransformed data are graphed. (Bottom) For linear regressions of soil respiration and net N mineralization as a function of plant species richness, response variables were natural log-transformed, but untransformed data are graphed. Dashed lines in Middle and Bottom represent the 95% confidence intervals of the regression lines.