Table 1. Elevation of study sites, plant parameters and soil characteristics of the comparative study plots (CSPs) and their relationships with forest age class based on Pearson correlation analysis.
| Forest age | CSP16 | CSP17 | CSP25 | CSP26 | CSP01 | CSP05 | CSP08 | CSP09 | CSP02 | CSP04 | CSP12 | CSP13 | Pearson R2 |
| Young | Young | Young | Young | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium | Old | Old | Old | Old | ||
| Elevation (m) | 309 | 310 | 345 | 251 | 522 | 507 | 413 | 348 | 390 | 542 | 620 | 402 | 0.705 ** |
| Plant parameters | |||||||||||||
| Plant cover | |||||||||||||
| Herb layer cover (%) | 55 | 10 | 60 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 45 | 50 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 15 | −0.427 |
| Tree layer cover (%) | 64 | 60 | 33 | 48 | 30 | 25 | 33 | 30 | 23 | 33 | 30 | 25 | −0.754 ** |
| Deadwood cover (%) | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 90 | 10 | 0.712 ** |
| Opensoil cover (%) | 1 | 15 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0.04 |
| Rock cover (%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.432 |
| Litter layer (thickness, cm) | 2.79 | 2.46 | 2.92 | 2.25 | 3.04 | 2.46 | 4.21 | 3.50 | 3.71 | 3.08 | 2.96 | 2.79 | 0.429 |
| Plant richness | |||||||||||||
| Herb species richness | 17 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 12 | −0.271 |
| Tree species richness | 37 | 39 | 27 | 44 | 44 | 25 | 53 | 55 | 69 | 44 | 29 | 32 | 0.173 |
| Plant biomass | |||||||||||||
| Herbaceous biomass (g) | 26.3 | 5.21 | 64.2 | 5.49 | 9.08 | 0.23 | 25.9 | 38.0 | 9.07 | 5.15 | 0.00 | 0.64 | −0.512 |
| Woody plant biomass (<1 m) (g) | 16.7 | 12.7 | 10.4 | 7.82 | 9.16 | 2.09 | 2.56 | 0.21 | 0.23 | 4.12 | 0.19 | 8.07 | −0.631 * |
| Litter biomass (dry weight, g per 0.11 m2) | 69.4 | 101.0 | 85.4 | 87.4 | 122.6 | 80.0 | 92.9 | 60.9 | 78.3 | 97.2 | 63.5 | 89.9 | −0.099 |
| Soil characteristics | |||||||||||||
| Sand (%) | 52.7 | 47.3 | 54.2 | 55.6 | 48.1 | 53.8 | 48.1 | 42.2 | 35.3 | 31.4 | 45.9 | 53.0 | −0.611 * |
| Clay (%) | 20.4 | 23.9 | 18.8 | 19.9 | 20.4 | 18.0 | 20.5 | 22.3 | 24.8 | 23.7 | 16.4 | 19.3 | 0.015 |
| Soil organic carbon (%) | 4.05 | 4.51 | 4.07 | 4.11 | 5.70 | 4.03 | 7.11 | 7.22 | 7.43 | 8.54 | 6.15 | 3.55 | 0.535 |
| C/N ratio | 19.1 | 17.9 | 21.6 | 16.1 | 18.1 | 19.5 | 20.1 | 18.0 | 15.9 | 15.8 | 18.3 | 18.7 | −0.364 |
| pHKCl | 3.82 | 3.84 | 3.73 | 4.01 | 3.75 | 3.87 | 3.78 | 3.61 | 3.75 | 3.72 | 3.95 | 3.94 | −0.038 |
Significant values (Bonferroni corrected P<0.05) are shown in bold.
*
P<0.05,
**
P<0.01.