In the litter experiment SR ranged between 0.81 and 1.48 over the course of the experiment with a mean (\(\pm\) SD) of 1.06 (\(\pm\) 0.10). The linear mixed model found that there was a significant effect of the presence of leaf litter on SR but this effect was not consistent throughout the incubation as indicated by a significant interaction between leaf litter and incubation days (Table \ref{tab:spec_stats}). Evaluation of the results shows that the bottles containing leaf litter had a greater SR on the initial day of the incubation but after this, there was no difference in SR among the bottles (Fig. \ref{fig:sratio_day}).
In the leached litter experiment we measured SR values over a similar range to what was observed in the litter experiment. SR ranged from 0.85 to 1.27 with a mean (\(\pm\) SD) of 1.04 (\(\pm\) 0.07). As in the litter experiment there was a significant effect of the presence of leaf litter on SR, but unlike in the leached litter experiment SR also varied with the length of the incubation, and had only a marginally significant interaction between leaf litter and incubation length (Table \ref{tab:spec_stats}). Evaluation of the data show that SR increased with incubation day and only on day 9 was there an increase in SR in the microcosms containing leaf litter (Fig. \ref{fig:sratio_day}).