Table 1.

Soil properties in southern boreal forests in Greater Khingan Mountains.

Soil properties	Birch	Aspen	Larch	Pine	Birch-Aspen	Larch- Pine
NH4-N	20.28 ± 0.49	19.45 ± 0.63	26.33 ± 1.68	31.41 ± 0.63	NS	**
NO3-N	1.51 ± 0.03	1.51 ± 0.07	1.53 ± 0.03	2.21 ± 0.21	NS	**
Dissolved organic C	99.66 ± 8.92	87.52 ± 5.20	108.02 ± 10.47	182.36 ± 9.27	NS	**
Available P	27.98 ± 0.88	31.50 ± 0.75	18.20 ± 0.25	22.87 ± 0.71	**	**
Available K	103.05 ± 5.16	289.79 ± 14.99	256.47 ± 24.27	221.37 ± 12.63	**	NS
Total organic C	47.40 ± 2.51	39.57 ± 2.01	83.84 ± 0.90	88.54 ± 6.02	*	NS
Total N	3.35 ± 0.13	2.88 ± 0.12	4.32 ± 0.29	4.60 ± 0.02	*	NS
Total P	1.47 ± 0.10	2.34 ± 0.37	1.44 ± 0.08	2.08 ± 0.03	*	**
Total K	18.05 ± 0.71	19.63 ± 1.01	17.48 ± 0.41	18.93 ± 0.27	NS	**
Protease	0.40 ± 0.05	0.58 ± 0.04	0.51 ± 0.01	0.67 ± 0.01	**	**
Cellulose	0.41 ± 0.02	0.44 ± 0.06	0.42 ± 0.03	0.65 ± 0.01	NS	**
pH	5.57 ± 0.02	5.88 ± 0.01	4.84 ± 0.01	4.50 ± 0.02	**	**

Ammonium nitrogen (NH₄-N); nitrate nitrogen (NO₃-N); C, N, P, and K are common abbreviations of elements. Units are g/kg for contents of total organic C, total N, total P, and total K; while mg/kg for other nutrient contents. Meanings of hydrolase activities were showed in “Methods” Section. Moistures are presented as percentages. The last two columns indicated the statistical significance between boreal forests: NS (p > 0.05); * (p < 0.05); ** (p < 0.01). Soil properties with no significant difference between boreal forests were omitted here, but they are showed in Table S3.