Evaluation of Spatial Variability of Some Soil Properties and Fertility Status Using Nutrient Index and GIS in Bilqas District, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Tracking changes of spatial variability is important to know soil fertility status. A study was conducted to explore the spatial variability of soil properties using GIS, fertility status using nutrient index and changes of spatial variability comparative with a previous study in Bilqas District, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. The studied area covers about 684 km 2. Accordingly, eleven surface soil samples were collected according to the previous study locations using GPS. The obtained results indicated that, the spatial variability maps of soil properties changed from site to other and from time to other. When comparing the spatial variability of soil properties between the current and previous study, it was observed a decreasing in BD, available NP and CEC in the current study. While, there are a increasing in EC, pH, OM, available K, C/N ratio and ESP. In general, the higher values of clay, exchangeable Ca and Mg, OM, TN, C/N ratio, CEC and ESP were observed in the southern parts of the studied area. In contrary, the lower values of sand, silt, exchangeable K and Na, bulk density, EC and pH were monitor in the southern parts, while the lower values of available NPK were observed in northern parts. Soil fertility status evaluation using nutrient index was low according to TN and available N. While, it was medium according to salt index and exchangeable Ca. Additionally, soil fertility status was high according to soil reaction index, OM, available P, available K, CEC, C/N ratio, exchangeable K, Na and Mg.

Review Article: Soil Fertility Assessment Using GIS

“…Based on the difference of landform, Khadka et al, (2017) collected 81 soil samples (0-20cm) Using soil sampling auger based for evaluation of soil fertility in the study area. Periodically estimate changes in spatial variance to know soil fertility status is very important, where cultivation of the different crops depend on Tracking and evaluation of soil fertility and determine soil properties (El-Seedy, 2019).…”