SOIL VARIABILITY AND RECONNAISSANCE SOIL MAPPING. A STATISTICAL STUDY IN NORFOLK

Abstract

SummaryThe incorporation of measures of soil variability at the reconnaissance stage of soil survey is considered as a possible alternative to, or additional feature of, present procedures. A straightforward hierarchical sampling design based upon the major parent materials of the upland section of the study area and associated analysis of variance model are described. This allowed the estimation of scale components for five levels of the sampling design at separation distances from over two kilometers down to five meters. Principal components analysis is used to economise on the number of variables for further analysis. Analysis of the pattern of principal component scores shows the first six components to have distinctive variability patterns both within and between strata. It is concluded that present soil survey procedures take too little account of soil variability patterns, and that inclusions of such information at the reconnaissance stage would greatly improve the detailed survey.