SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF RUBBER TREE DENDROMETRICS CHARACTERISTICS AND SOIL PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the spatial variability of rubber tree dendrometrics characteristics (diameter and height) and its relationship with soil physical attributes (soil penetration resistance and hydraulic conductivity). The experiment was located in Campinas, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil in a experimental station of the Instituto Agronomico, in a 10 ha area with rubber trees grown since 1992. Samples were taken from 232 points in a grid of 20 x 20 m. The average diameter at the chest height and the height of the trees were determined using the average of four plants. The following soil physical attributes were studied: soil resistance to penetration up to 0.40 m deep and water infiltration in two depths (0-0.10 m and 0.10-0.20 m). All plant and soil variables showed moderate to weak spatial dependence among samples. There was also correlation between spatial variability maps of the rubber tree dendrometric characteristics and the soil physical attributes studied.