2.6 statisticaL analyses
To assess the factors that control the seasonal variations in soil
microbial biomass, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to
estimate overall correlations for measured variables in all the plots.
The effects of treatment and sampling time (seasonal effect) were
assessed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. The
Tukey's test was used to detect statistically significant differences
between treatments (p< 0.05) All variables were tested for
normaliry of the distribution and transformed when necessary
to minimize deviance. All statistical analyses were performed with
SYSTAT v.l 1 (SYSTAT Software, lnc.). All'data are expressed on a
dry-weight basis.