Results and Discussion
Figure 1:
A comparison of the mean weight of soil per aggregate class size in different ecosystems was significant with a higher proportion of large aggregates in Big Bluestem, and no significance between No-Till and Conventional Tillage Systems
Figure 2:
Incubation of non-aggregated soil was significant (p<0.029) for the ecosystem’s affect of CO2 with time.
Figure 3:
Incubation of Conventional Tillage soil as separated into aggregates demonstrated an increase of CO2 with time. The R2 for 250-2000 mm size class was 0.5797 and 0.8544 for 53-250 mm. The relationship between aggregate size class and CO2 emissions was significant (p>0.001).
Figure 4:
Incubation of No-Till soil as separated into aggregates showed a linear increase of CO2 with time. The R2 value for 250-2000 mm size class was 0.7423, and 53-250 mm was 0.6259. The relationship between aggregate size class and CO2 emissions was significant (p<0.005).
Figure 5:
Incubation of soil under replanted prairie as separated into aggregates demonstrated an increase of CO2 with time. The R2 value for >2000 mm was 0.7435, for 250-2000 mm size class 0.8287 and for 53-250 mm 0.8062. The relationship between aggregate size class and CO2 emissions was significant (p<0.001).