Table 1.
Physicochemical properties of maize rhizosphere and bulk soils.
| Sample Locations |
Physicochemical Values | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pH (H2O) | Sulfate (mg/kg) | Total C (%) | P (mg/kg) | K (mg/kg) | N-NO3 (mg/kg) | N-NH4 (mg/kg) | Org C (%) | OM (%) | |
| Ls | 5.62 ± 0.09 a | 1.60 ± 1.68 a | 0.90 ± 0.05 a | 50.98 ± 1.77 a | 240.00 ± 2.94 a | 16.29 ± 2.25 a | 3.61 ± 0.29 ab | 0.61 ± 0.02 a | 3.40 ± 0.16 a |
| Lc | 5.87 ± 0.22 a | 0.44 ± 0.36 a | 0.90 ± 0.01 a | 65.86 ± 13.71 a | 243.00 ± 0.82 a | 16.24 ± 0.59 a | 2.42 ± 0.19 a | 0.60 ± 0.01 a | 3.25 ± 0.03 a |
| Rs | 6.76 ± 0.28 b | 2.56 ± 2.66 a | 1.34 ± 0.24 a | 257.14 ± 35.32 b | 167.00 ± 11.63 b | 8.52 ± 2.68 b | 2.91 ± 1.12 a | 1.09 ± 0.09 b | 3.43 ± 0.39 a |
| Rc | 6.73 ± 0.26 b | 2.32 ± 2.75 a | 0.85 ± 0.50 a | 206.54 ± 81.73 b | 148.50 ± 34.95 b | 7.38 ± 2.46 b | 4.75 ± 1.21 b | 0.87 ± 0.15 c | 2.95 ± 0.85 a |
| p-values | ˂0.000 | 0.623 | 0.187 | 0.001 | ˂0.000 | 0.001 | 0.044 | ˂0.000 | 0.609 |
Each value is expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 3). <a–c> indicates significant difference in values of samples according to Tukey’s HSD test (p ≤ 0.05). p-values given across the rows were used to compare chemical properties of the sampling sites. Ls—Lichtenburg rhizosphere sample, Lc—Lichtenburg bulk (control) sample, Rs—Randfontein rhizosphere sample, Rc—Randfontein bulk (control) sample. All statistical analyses, including mean values and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were done using GraphPad Prism (v5.0).