Table 3: Percentages of r/K bacterial strategists (classes 1, 2 and 3) on total culturable bacteria colony counts as they appeared on 0.1 TSA over a period of six days and EPI-index.

Soil samples r/K class 1 r/K class 2 r/K class 3 EPI-index
  r-strategistsa K-strategistsa  
Top        
2.2 A 46% 12% 42% 0.42
2.2 B 51% 23% 26% 0.45
2.2 C 39% 25% 37% 0.47
Mean ± SEM 45.33 ± 3.48b 20.00 ± 4.04a 35.00 ± 4.73a 0.47 ± 0.01b
Bottom        
4.1 A 61% 10% 29% 0.39
4.1 B 62% 15% 23% 0.40
4.1 C 69% 12% 19% 0.36
Mean ± SEM 64.00 ± 2.52b 12.33 ± 1.45a 23.67 ± 2.91a 0.41 ± 0.02b

a 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).
b Percentage data were Logit transformed and 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. Significant data are also indicated in bold.