Spatial variability pattern and mapping of selected soil properties in hilly areas of Hindukush range northern, Pakistan

摘要

Soil samples at 0-20 cm depth were collected from major crop areas of Hindukushmountainous range, District Chitral, extreme Northwestern Pakistan, during April 2014 toassess their physico-chemical properties and spatial distribution pattern. 103 soil sampleswere analyzed and maps were created by geostatistical technique of inverse distanceweighting and kriging techniques using GIS and GS win-7 computer software. The soiltexture ranged from silt loam to dominantly sandy loam, slightly acidic to alkaline andmoderate to highly calcareous but with no salinity indication. Soil organic matter washigher than 2 % in about 75 % of samples. Soil pH, EC and lime showed slight dependenceon each other with r values from 0.4 to 0.5 while OM varied independently as indicated bytheir lower correlation values. Semivariogram analysis showed that soil pH, lime, OM hadstrong spatial dependence (nugget-sill ratio, 25%) while silt, sand, EC had moderately(nugget-sill ratio, 25-75%) and clay had weakly distributed in the area. Linear, Gaussianand exponential models were used for different soil parameter based on nugget, meanprediction error and root mean square standardize prediction error values and maps weredeveloped through extension techniques to cover all the area outside the sampling points.