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 8

Parameters derived from the N mineralization kinetics by applying the first-order equation  = [()].

Parameter from the N mineralization kinetics	Depth (cm)	Forest	YP	OP
(g m^−2)	0–5	9.8 ± 3.5^a	7.8 ± 4.2^a	14.8 ± 2.6^b
k (1/week)	0–5	0.1 ± 0.0^a	0.3 ± 0.2^b	0.2 ± 0.1^a
(g m^−2)	0–5	13.0 ± 4.9^a	10.1 ± 5.3^a	18.5 ± 4.7^b
	0–5	0.97	0.93	0.96

Mean values ± standard deviation. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences between sites (). YP: 5-year-old pasture; OP: 18-year-old pasture. = mineralized nitrogen accumulated during 15 weeks of incubation, = constant rate of nitrogen mineralization, = potentially mineralizable nitrogen, and = coefficient of the determination.