Abstract
Geostatistical analysis facilitates site-specific farming, soil and sanitary landfill management, sustainability and health. The objectives of this study were to assess the extent of variability, spatial dependence and structure of soil particle sizes, pedological and management implications in the coastal plain sands soils of southeastern Nigeria. Surface (0 – 15cm) and subsurface (15 – 30cm) soil samples were collected at 10m2 intervals (rigid grid nodes) in a 100m by 100m plot at the one year fallowed portion of Teaching and Research / Commercial Farm of University of Uyo, in Use Offot, Uyo, Nigeria. A total of 100 samples were collected for each depth. Coefficient of variation (CV) of silt: clay ratio (SCR), silt, fine and coarse sand (surface) were highly variable at both soil depths, while coarse sand of subsurface soil was least variable (13.8%). Spatial dependence of the variables ranged from strong to moderate. The moderately spatially dependent variables included fine sand (36.7%), coarse sand (48.7%) on the surface, and SCR (33.7%) on the subsurface, while the remaining variables were strongly spatially dependent. Pearson correlation coefficients between the semivariances of the two depths showed significance in 52.8% of the entire relationships compared to 19.4% observed on the measured values of the particle sizes. Stronger spatially dependent variables correlated with more variables compared to the moderately spatially dependent variables. It was observed that most of the kriged maps produced displayed similarity in the sedimentation or depositional characteristics which now followed the depositional effect of the massive erosive forces. Kriging may combine correlation and spatial dependence to facilitate site specific farming, soil and sanitary landfills management, knowledge of pedogenesis and sustainability in the coastal plain sands soils.Keywords: coastal plain sands, spatial structure, soil variability, particle sizes, pedogenesis
Highlights
Particle size fractions (PsF) are the most important attributes affecting physical and chemical processes in the soil
The mean and median were used as primary estimates of central tendency, while standard deviation, coefficient of variation (CV), skewness, kurtosis, minimum and maximum were used as estimates of variability (Table 1)
It was observed that silt clay ratio (SCR) of the subsurface soil was skewed while all the soil properties were kurtous with the exception of silt + clay, clay, fine sand and coarse sand of surface soil, fine sand of the subsurface soil
Summary
Particle size fractions (PsF) are the most important attributes affecting physical and chemical processes in the soil. The relative distribution of particle size fractions largely determines water, heat, nutrient fluxes, water and nutrient holding capacity and soil surface form and stability. Variation in soil texture directly contributes to the variation in nutrient storage and availability, water retention, availability and transport may influence the yield potential of any site. Warric and Gardner (1983) found a significant impact of psf variability on soil performance and crop yield. Variability in soil texture component is a primary factor influencing crop yield. Reynolds (1970) and Crave and Gascuel-Odoux, (1997) found that variation in soil moisture content was directly related to the soil textural variability
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