Spatial Analyses of Soil Chemical Properties from a Remodeled Paddy Field as Affected by Wet Land Leveling

Abstract

Uniformity and leveled distributions of soil chemicals across paddy fields are critical to manage optimal crop yields, reduce environmental risks and efficiently use water in rice cultivation. In this study, an investigation of spatial distributions on soil chemical properties was conducted to evaluate the effect of land leveling on mitigation of soil chemical property heterogeneity from a remodeled paddy field. The spatial variabilities of chemical properties were analyzed by geostatistical analyses; semivariograms and kriged simulations. The soil samples were taken from a 1 ha paddy field before and after land leveling with sufficient water. The study site was located at Bon-ri site of Dalseong and river sediments were dredged from Nakdong river basins. The sediments were buried into the paddy field after 50 cm of top soils at the paddy field were removed. The top soils were recovered after the sediments were piled up. In order to obtain the most accurate spatial field information, the soil samples were taken at every 5 m by 5 m grid point and total number of samples was 100 before and after land leveling with sufficient water. Soil pH increased from 6.59 to 6.85. Geostatistical analyses showed that chemical distributions had a high spatial dependence within a paddy field. The parameters of semivariogram analysis showed similar trends across the properties except pH comparing results from before and after land leveling. These properties had smaller “sill” values and greater “range” values after land leveling than ones from before land leveling. These results can be interpreted as land leveling induced more homogeneous distributions of soil chemical properties. The homogeneous distributions were confirmed by kriged simulations and distribution maps. As a conclusion, land leveling with sufficient water may induce better managements of fertilizer and water use in rice cultivation at disturbed paddy fields.