Table 3. Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) between elevation and biotic or abiotic factors in decomposing litter.

	1st winter	1st growing season	2nd winter	2nd growing season
C	0.06	−0.16*	−0.33*	−0.28*
N	−0.08	−0.32*	0.12*	0.11
P	−0.05	0.00	0.00	0.03
K	0.03	0.22*	0.21*	0.15*
Lignin	−0.24*	−0.02	−0.01	0.03
C:N	0.11	0.26*	−0.17*	−0.16*
Lignin:N	0.01	0.28*	−0.06	−0.05
MBC	0.40*	0.15*	−0.16*	−0.13*
MBN	0.08	0.09	−0.08	0.01
MBP	0.11	−0.09	0.07	0.07
Bacteria	−0.14	−0.15*	0.16*	0.33*
Fungi	−0.17*	0.26*	−0.08	0.23*
Sucrase activity	0.09	−0.02	0.01	0.02
ACPA	0.10	0.23*	−0.13*	0.15*
Soil temperature	−0.98*	−0.91*	−0.86*	−0.99*
FTCs	−0.28*	N.A.	0.34*	N.A.

An asterisk (*) indicates significant difference at P<0.05.

Abbreviations: FTCs = numbers of soil freeze-thaw cycles, MBC = microbial biomass carbon, MBN = microbial biomass nitrogen, MBP = microbial biomass phosphorus, and ACPA = acid (pH 6.5) phosphatase (ACP) activity. An asterisk (*) indicates statistically significant (P<0.05).