Effects of Land Use Change and Seasonality of Precipitation on Soil Nitrogen in a Dry Tropical Forest Area in the Western Llanos of Venezuela

Table 3

Seasonal changes in the available soil nitrate in the forest and pastures.

Season	Depth  (cm)	Available nitrate (N-N), g m^−2
		Forest	YP	OP
End rainy season	0–5	0.9 ± 0.7^Aba	0.2 ± 0.2^Ab	1.4 ± 0.5^Aa
Dry season	0–5	1.4 ± 1.0^Aab	0.5 ± 0.3^Ba	1.7 ± 1.2^Ab
Early rainy season	0–5	0.5 ± 0.1^Ba	0.4 ± 0.2^ABa	1.0 ± 0.3^Ab

Mean values ± standard deviation. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences between sites (). Different capital letters indicate significant differences between seasons (). YP: 5-year-old pasture; OP: 18-year-old pasture.