Associations between forest vegetation and the fertility of soil organic horizons in northwestern Russia

Forest Ecosystems

Table 5 Characteristics of the fertility of soil organic horizons in Cajander’s forest site types

Parameters	v-test			Mean in category			Standard deviation in category			Overall mean	Overall standard deviation	p-value
Parameters	OMT^a (n = 18)	MT (n = 48)	VT (n = 45)	OMT (n = 18)	MT (n = 48)	VT (n = 45)	OMT (n = 18)	MT (n = 48)	VT (n = 45)	Overall mean	Overall standard deviation	OMT (n = 18)	MT (n = 48)	VT (n = 45)
pH CaCl₂	1.59	1.79	−2.72	3.67	3.60	3.35	0.52	0.54	0.37	3.51	0.48	0.113	0.073	0.006
pH H₂O	0.55	1.57	−1.82	4.52	4.55	4.36	0.50	0.53	0.41	4.46	0.48	0.583	0.116	0.069
Total C (g∙kg^− 1)	1.32	− 1.60	0.59	411	369	391	98.6	93.2	79.9	385	89	0.188	0.109	0.558
Total N (g∙kg^− 1)	3.76	1.88	−4.00	13.7	11.7	9.4	3.95	2.97	2.31	11.0	3.27	0	0.060	0
С/N	−2	−2	3	32	34	44	10	19	13	38	16	0.062	0.037	0.005
Exchangeable acidity^b	−0.28	− 1.18	1.72	4.19	4.06	4.68	2.12	1.78	1.86	4.31	1.86	0.781	0.237	0.086
Exchangeable Ca^b	3.02	1.83	−3.21	16.6	14.1	10.8	6.38	5.39	4.71	12.9	5.66	0.003	0.067	0.001
Exchangeable Mg^b	2.02	1.03	−1.97	3.52	2.95	2.34	2.88	1.61	1.24	2.74	1.75	0.043	0.301	0.049
Exchangeable K^b	3.41	2.55	−3.66	3.08	2.72	2.16	0.88	0.64	0.63	2.50	0.78	0.001	0.011	0
Exchangeable Na^b	−0.78	−2.18	2.33	0.11	0.10	0.13	0.04	0.05		0.12	0.06	0.432	0.029	0.020
Exchangeable Al^b	−0.55	− 0.07	0.70	0.95	1.07	1.16	0.82	1.20	1.06	1.08	1.05	0.586	0.946	0.482
Exchangeable Mn^b	1.06	0.80	−1.38	1.08	1.00	0.86	0.58	0.58	0.49	0.95	0.54	0.287	0.422	0.169
BS (%)	1.84	2.22	−3.17	83.4	81.7	74.6	9.5	9.2	12.6	78.9	11.4	0.066	0.026	0.002
Extractable P (mg∙kg⁻¹)	1.08	0.40	−0.73	794	763	739	217	153	164	754	170	0.282	0.623	0.468

^aOMT – Oxalis-Myrtillus, MT – Myrtillus, VT – Vaccinium vitis-idaea; ^b – cmol(+)∙kg^− 1