Table 3.
Pore size distribution, field water capacity, and saturated hydraulic conductivities of the control and chicken manure- and spent mushroom substrate-amended soils at depths of 0–20, 20–40, and 40–60 cm. Standard deviations are shown in brackets. Means with different letters denote significant differences between the control and treatments at the same depth at the 5% level by the LSD test.
| Treatments | Depth (cm) | Porosity (% v/v) | Field Water Capacity %, v/v |
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity m/day | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission Pores >50 µm |
Storage Pores 50–0.5 µm |
Residual Pores and Bonding Space <0.5 µm | ||||
| Control (no chicken manure) | 0–20 | 21.4 (1.26) a | 11.0 (1.27) b | 7.3 (1.50) c | 15.2 (0.66) d | 15.8 (4.51) a |
| 20–40 | 8.0 (1.48) a | 14.0 (2.16) a | 8.9 (1.27) b | 20.5 (1.12) b | 7.8 (3.80) a | |
| 40–60 | 14.1 (2.70) a | 12.1 (0.79) b | 6.0 (2.86) b | 15.6 (4.24) a | 9.2 (4.02) a | |
| Chicken manure | 0–20 | 3.8 (1.25) c | 13.2 (2.53) ab | 21.8 (1.03) a | 33.1 (2.38) a | 4.7 (2.18) b |
| 20–40 | 4.3 (2.33) b | 15.0 (4.29) a | 17.0 (1.92) a | 29.9 (2.10) a | 2.4 (0.73) b | |
| 40–60 | 4.1 (1.59) c | 11.0 (1.00) b | 15.4 (2.41) a | 24.7 (2.71) c | 8.5 (4.63) a | |
| Control (no spent mushroom substrate) | 0–20 | 13.2 (1.05) b | 13.8 (0.21) a | 8.7 (0.72) c | 19.9 (0.86) c | 5.7 (1.86) b |
| 20–40 | 8.0 (0.74) a | 19.2 (1.24) a | 4.9 (2.07) b | 20.5 (2.86) b | 2.6 (0.23) b | |
| 40–60 | 8.1 (0.43) b | 19.6 (1.33) a | 6.6 (2.76) b | 22.2 (1.83) b | 1.8 (0.71) b | |
| Spent mushroom substrate | 0–20 | 11.3 (1.50) b | 13.1 (0.80) a | 19.3 (1.44) b | 29.5 (1.06) b | 4.7 (1.03) b |
| 20–40 | 8.8 (2.03) a | 14.3 (1.64) a | 17.2 (2.30) a | 29.2 (2.10) b | 0.78 (0.20) b | |
| 40–60 | 7.3 (0.98) b | 18.0 (1.11) a | 8.6 (0.65) b | 23.2 (0.28) bc | 4.4 (0.83) ab | |