Table 2 Summary of soil pore characteristics for the studied prairie and monoculture switchgrass systems at the two topographical positions before the plant growth experiment.

From: Pore architecture and particulate organic matter in soils under monoculture switchgrass and restored prairie in contrasting topography

Topography

System

Total Porosity (%)

Pores < 18.2 um (%)

Pores > 18.2um (%)

Pore connectivity (%)

Solid-pore interface (mm2)

Depression

Prairie

50.5 (1.9)

32.9 (1.3)

17.5 (1.0)

94.6 (1.4)a

84.8 (8.5)a

Switchgrass

46.2 (2.1)

31.7 (1.5)

14.5 (1.1)a

92.8 (1.5)

84.4 (9.3)a

Slope

Prairie

50.2 (1.9)

32.4 (1.3)

17.7 (1.0)

89.5 (1.4)b

184.5 (8.5)b*

Switchgrass

44.6 (1.9)

27.1(1.3)

17.6 (1.0)b

92.7 (1.4)

134.3 (8.5)b

  1. Shown are means (n = 6) and standard errors (in parentheses) for each system and topographical position.
  2. Stars (*) indicate significant differences between the cropping systems within each topographical position (p < 0.05) and letters indicate significant differences between the topographical positions within each cropping system (p < 0.05). No stars or letters are shown when the differences were not statistically significant.
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