Means and 95% confidence intervals of the (a) dissolved organic carbon and (b) total dissolved nitrogen concentrations after each stage as well as in the winter, the growing season and for the entire year of decomposition in the alpine forest (AF) and the alpine meadow (AM) with the related litter combined, in the soil fauna (SF, above dashed line) and no soil fauna (NSF, below dashed line) treatments.

<p>* <i>P</i><0.05, ** <i>P</i><0.01 and *** <i>P</i><0.001 tested by pairwise t-test.