Spatial Variability of Soil Total Nutrients in a Tobacco Plantation Field in Central China

Hou-Long, Jiang; Guo-Shun, Liu; Rui, Wang; Hong-Zhi, Shi; Hong-Chao, Hu

Spatial Variability of Soil Total Nutrients in a Tobacco Plantation Field in Central China

2012

Hou-Long, Jiang | Guo-Shun, Liu | Rui, Wang | Hong-Zhi, Shi | Hong-Chao, Hu

The spatial variability of soil total nutrient levels, which may be greatly affected by parent material, plays an important role in both agriculture and environment, especially with regard to soil fertility and soil quality. Little research has been done that addresses the spatial characteristics of total nutrients. Soil samples (0–20 cm) were taken from 111 points on an approximately 20-m grid in March 2009 using a global positioning system (GPS) to define sample locations. Sixteen soil total chemical properties were analyzed by classical statistical and geostatistical methods. Soil aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nitrogen (N), sodium (Na), silicon (Si), strontium (Sr), titanium (Ti), and vanadium (V) exhibited strong spatial dependence, with the nugget–sill ratios ranging from 3.39% (Na) to 23.53% (Si). Soil barium (Ba), iron (Fe), potassium (K), manganese (Mn), phosphorus (P), and zinc (Zn) had moderate spatial dependence, with nugget–sill ratios of 3.39% to 23.53%. The spatial correlation distances varied from 15.7 m (Zn) to 286.5 m (Cr). The clearly patchy distributions indicated that significant positive correlations among Al, Ba, Fe, K, Mn, Na, Si, Ti, and V led to strong positional similarity. The interpolated maps of the nutrients showed the spatial distributions of the soil variables, which is helpful for better understanding their spatial variability and delineating the potential agricultural management zone. The soil total nutrient distribution maps could be used as the basis for site-specific fertilizer application to improve quality and increase yield of flue-cured tobacco in the study area.

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