Table 3 Statistical results on the percentage change mass, carbon and nitrogen masses, as well as percentage change in δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N and both lignin ratios across the litter types and degree of inundation

	Mass loss	C	N	δ¹³C	δ¹⁵N	Lig:PS proxy	LigG:LigS proxy
OM type	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	0.1	<0.01	<0.01
Inund.	0.02	<0.01	<0.01	0.19	0.64	0.27	0.68
OM:Inund.	0.85	0.36	0.7	0.78	0.95	na	na
Pairwise comparison between litter types	P < 0.05 for all combination	P < 0.05 for all combinations, except RZ vs RA; RT vs L	P < 0.05 for all combinations, except RZ vs RA; RT vs L	P < 0.05 for L vs. RA; L vs RT; L vs RZ	na	P < 0.05 for all combinati-on	P < 0.05 for RT vs. RA; RZ vs RT
Pairwise comparison between inundation	P < 0.05 for combination SLR100 vs. SLI-40	P < 0.05 for combination SLR30 vs SLI and SLR30 vs. SLI-40	P < 0.05 for combination SLI-40 vs SLR100, SLI-40 vs SLR60 and SLI-40 vs. SLR30	na	na	na	na

The effects of litter types, inundation treatment and their interaction for the other variables (C, N, δ13C, δ15N, Lig:PS, LigS:LigG) were analysed using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons were conducted using Dunn tests. SLR100 was the most inundated treatment, SLI was the initial inundation condition and SL-40 was the least inundated treatment, see section Materials and Methods 2.1. For all variables, n = 60, except for mass loss (n = 100) and for Lig:PS and LigG:LigS (n = 45). Inund is the inundation treatment, C is carbon, N is nitrogen, Lig:PS is the lignin-to-polysaccharide ratio, LigG:LigS is the ratio between the guaiacyl units/syringyl units, RA stands for fine absorptive roots; RT indicates fine transportive roots; RZ stands for rhizomes; L stands for leaves. Refer to Table 1 for the level of inundation. The statistical results per litter type are based on replicate made of pooled litters from different locations, which might have reduced the variability across the replicates.

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