Quantifying the short-term dynamics of soil organic carbon decomposition using a power function model

Ecological Processes

Table 1 Comparison of three statistical models relating heterotrophic soil respiration (R _h) to incubation time (t) in three subtropical forest soils

Model^a		PE^b	SS	CB
Log-linear	a, b	1.0290,−0.1250	1.2802,−0.1788	1.8248,−0.3020
R _h = a + bLog(t)	AIC	−57.68	−70.52	−48.08
	r ²	0.51	0.90	0.88
Exponential	a, b	0.4152,−0.0207	0.5894,−0.0173	0.9690,−0.0267
R _h = aExp(bt)	AIC	−50.94	−50.40	−38.04
	r ²	0.67	0.62	0.71
Power	a, b	0.9754,−0.2355	1.1125,−0.1862	2.4384,−0.2782
R _h = at ^b	AIC	−61.27	−75.14	−54.28
	r ²	0.82	0.93	0.91

^aIn deriving the impirical models, one R _h data point at each measurement day was the average of the R _h measurements under the 25 experimental treatments (i.e., 5 temperatures × 5 moistures)
^bPE, SS, and CB represent the P. elliottii plantation, S. superba plantation, and conifer and broadleaf mixed forest soils, respectively