The retention of nitrogen in the soil is an important consideration in cultivation practices, including the cultivation of forests. Two methods for preparing plots for planting pine trees after clear-cutting were compared on the basis of the percentage of labeled nitrogen recovered. Method A leaves much of the forest floor intact, while method B removes most of the organic material. It is clear that method B will produce a much lower recovery of nitrogen from the forest floor. The question of interest is whether or not method B will cause more nitrogen to be retained in the microbial biomass, as compensation for having less organic material available. The percentage of nitrogen recovered in the microbial biomass was measured on six text plots for each method. Method A plots showed a mean of 12 and a standard deviation of 1. Method B plots showed a mean of 15 and a standard deviation of 2. At the 10% significance level, should we say that the mean percentage of recovered nitrogen is larger for method B?
10.42) The retention of nitrogen in the soil is an important consideration in cultivation practices, including the cultivation of forests. Two methods for preparing plots for planting pine trees after clear-cutting were compared on the basis of the percentage of labeled nitrogen recovered. Method A leaves much of the forest floor intact, while method B removes most of the organic material. It is clear that method B will produce a much lower recovery of nitrogen from the forest floor. The question of interest is whether or not method B will cause more nitrogen to be retained in the microbial biomass, as compensation for having less organic material available. The percentage of nitrogen recovered in the microbial biomass was measured on six text plots for each method. Method A plots showed a mean of 12 and a standard deviation of 1. Method B plots showed a mean of 15 and a standard deviation of 2. At the 10% significance level, should we say that the mean percentage of recovered nitrogen is larger for method B?
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