Table 2.

Selected chemical properties of the forest soils by sub-region for the three depths sampled (± 1 standard error). The value n is number of sites.

	n	Thickness cm	soil pH†	%SOM‡ g g−1	%Clay§ g g−1	Fe mg kg−1	Fe kg ha−1
Western Region
Forest floor	3	3.2 ± 0.5	4.48 ± 0.35	52 ± 5	n.a.	9 ± 3	0.2 ± 0.1
Upper mineral soil	3	4.1 ± 0.6	4.43 ± 0.37	9 ± 2	11 ± 2	12 ± 6	6 ± 3
Lower mineral soil	3	5.9 ± 0.5	4.38 ± 0.32	5 ± 1	12 ± 3	15± 6	12 ± 6
Central Region
Forest floor	6	6.9 ± 1.4	4.24 ± 0.10	67 ± 5	n.a.	6 ± 1	0.6 ± 0.2
Upper mineral soil	6	5.9 ± 0.4	4.10 ± 0.06	15 ± 4	12 ± 3	14 ± 4	6 ± 1
Lower mineral soil	4	9.7 ± 1.2	4.12 ± 0.19	9 ± 3	6 ± 2	16 ± 3	20 ± 1
Northern Region
Forest floor	9	8.7 ± 1.8	3.97 ± 0.04	73 ± 3	n.a.	4 ± 1	0.7 ± 0.2
Upper mineral soil	9	6.4 ± 0.9	3.69 ± 0.03	9 ± 2	14 ± 2	12 ± 5	7 ± 3
Lower mineral soil	7	7.5 ± 0.6	4.13 ± 0.14	11 ± 1	12 ± 2	28 ± 2	25 ± 2

^†measured in a 2:5 soil water extract

^‡estimated from loss on ignition

^§determined by particle size distribution