Table 3.

Biomass partitioning and root to shoot ratio of 2-year-old pin oak (Quercus palustris) seedlings grown in either acidic or alkaline soil medium and inoculated with live or autoclaved soil from 3 different sites.

Soil pH1Site2Autoclaved inoculumShoot mass(g)Root mass(g)Total mass(g)Root/shoot
AcidicForestNo7.83 a38.41 ab16.23 a1.09 a
AcidicChloroticNo5.83 ab7.92 abc13.76 ab1.36 a
AcidicNon-chloroticNo7.46 a8.24 ab15.69 a1.13 a
AcidicForestYes7.94 a8.43 ab16.37 a1.05 a
AcidicChloroticYes5.12 abcd6.95 abc12.07 ab1.39 a
AcidicNon-chloroticYes7.19 a10.33 a17.51 a1.47 a
AlkalineForestNo5.60 abc7.50 abc13.09 ab1.35 a
AlkalineChloroticNo3.36 bcd5.47 bcd8.83 bc1.72 a
AlkalineNon-chloroticNo5.60 abc6.96 abc12.55 ab1.46 a
AlkalineForestYes2.19 d3.24 d5.43 c1.50 a
AlkalineChloroticYes3.79 bcd4.79 cd8.49 bc1.35 a
AlkalineNon-chloroticYes2.65 cd3.17 d5.82 c1.10 a
Means5.386.7812.151.33
ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE
Model0.001240.00210.00100.0545
pH0.00010.00010.00010.0541
Site0.14210.53930.29360.1089
Inoculation0.06580.06870.05500.6066
pH*Site0.36500.53290.51570.1914
pH*lnoculation0.16800.01990.04720.0761
Site*lnoculation0.50980.68610.65510.5092
pH*Site*lnoculation0.24940.18130.19430.0887
  • 1 Acidic soil pH = 5.5 and alkaline soil pH = 7.5.

  • 2 Soil inoculum from pin oak forest stand, urban chlorotic pin oak trees, and urban non-chlorotic pin oak trees.

  • 3 Means (n = 36) in the same column with a different letter are significantly different at the α = 0.05 level using a Fisher’s protected LSD.

  • 4 Significance probabilities from the F statistic from an ANOVA. Significant values (P ≤ 0.05) in bold.