3. Results
3.1. Landscape effects
The WSA and enzyme data were analyzed first to test for
landscape effects. Landscape effects were not significant for the
measured parameters within the grazed pasture (GP) and row-crop
(RC) treatments (Table 1). Also, the treatment by landscape interaction
was not significant. Data comparisons were only made with
treatments that contained landscape positions, the GP and the RC
treatments. For further analyses in this study, the enzyme activities
and percentage of WSA were averaged across landscape positions
for treatment comparisons.
3.2. Water stable aggregates (WSA)
Water stable aggregate percentages ranged from 17.8% to 70.5%
among the study treatments. The RC treatment (17.8%) had the
lowestWSAlevel and it was significantly lower than all other treatments
(Fig. 1). The GB treatment had the highest WSA percentage
(70.5%). The differences among the AgB, GB, and GP treatments
were not significant. The AgB, GB, and GP areas had more than
three times WSA compared with the RC treatment. Although the
WSA percentage was not significantly different between the two
buffers, it was numerically higher in the GB treatment than in the
AgB treatment.