Paper presented at the 52nd CFCS Annual Meeting, Guadeloupe, July 10-16, 2016
Figure 1: Effect of Sargassum mulch height on Soil Moisture Content at different times after treatment application. Mulch treatments were removed after 3 weeks. Soil electrical conductivity was greatly increased by the mulch treatments with values going above 1600 Ă‚ÂľS m-1 for the 8cm mulch treatment at two weeks after treatment application (Figure 2). Values declined over time, however, differences between the mulch treated and Control plots persisted after the mulch material was removed. Although soil electrical conductivity values were consistently lower for washed compared to unwashed Sargassum mulch treatments, the effect was not significant (data not shown).
Figure 2: Effect of Sargassum mulch height on Soil Electrical Conductivity at different times after treatment application. Mulch treatments were removed after 3 weeks (indicated by arrow). Soil respiration was increased by the mulch treatments after two weeks, and the effects became greater at 4 weeks after treatment application with similar values observed for the 5cm and 8cm mulch treatments (Figure 3). Increased soil respiration was observed in mulch treated plots even when soil moisture content was similar across all treatments. Soil respiration increased in Control plots over time indicating that possible beneficial effects of the mulch treatments can spill over into nearby non-treated plots.
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