Table 2: Bacteria colony counts (Log cfu g-1 of soil) as they appeared on 0.1 TSA over a period of six days and total culturable bacteria.

Soil samples r/K class 1a r/K class 2a r/K class 3a Total
culturable
  r-strategistsb K-strategistsb bacteria
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2.2 A 5.90 5.31 5.85 6.23
2.2 B 6.32 5.98 6.02 6.61
2.2 C 5.61 5.42 5.59 6.03
Mean ± SEM 5.94 ± 0.21 c 5.57 ± 0.21 c 5.82 ± 0.12 c 6.29 ± 0.17 c
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4.1 A 5.91 5.14 5.59 6.13
4.1 B 5.80 5.20 5.36 6.01
4.1 C 5.80 5.03 5.24 5.96
Mean ± SEM 5.84 ± 0.04 c 5.12 ± 0.05 c 5.40 ± 0.10 c 6.03 ± 0.05 c
Total Mean ± SEM 5.89 + 0.10 5.35 + 0.14 5.61 + 0.12 6.16 ± 0.10

a r/K class 1 = bacteria producing visible colonies at day 1
r/K class 2 = bacteria producing visible colonies at day 2
r/K class 3 = bacteria producing visible colonies at day 6
b Bacteria recovered in day 1 and 2 are fast growers (r-like strategists) and those recovered on day 6 are slow growers (K-like strategists).
c Log data were analyzed for statistical significance by using t-test (Graph Pad Prism version 5 software). Values ± SEM followed by the same letter are not significantly different (P >0.05) within each vertical column.