Interpreting Soil Electrical Conductivity and Terrain Attribute Variability with Soil Surveys

Abstract

Utilizing soil electrical conductivity (EC) measurements and terrain attributes for precision management will require secondary soil information for adequate interpretation. The objective of this study was to determine whether readily available second-order soil surveys were of adequate quality to aid with interpreting soil EC and terrain data. For three locations in Kentucky, USA, first-order soil surveys were created, second-order surveys reports were obtained, elevation was measured and used to calculate terrain attributes (slope, aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature), and bulk soil electrical conductivity was measured. Three analytical methods (an ordinary least squares analysis and two random field analyses), visual map assessment, and examination of least-squares means were used to assess the relationships between soil EC measurements, terrain attributes and first-and second-order soil surveys. The OLS and random field analyses were problematic. However, the ranking of the OLS F-statistics appeared to reflect the general relationship between landscape variables and first-order soil surveys. The landscape variables related particularly well with soil properties that had been impacted by past soil erosion. Unfortunately, however, second-order soil surveys in this study were not created at suitable scales to adequately interpret EC and terrain data regarding erosion history or other attributes. While these surveys may provide some useful information, field measurements, sampling, and observations will likely be required to develop high quality interpretations of soil EC and terrain attribute data.

Mapeamento Da Superfície Basal Do Manto De Intemperismo Pelo Comportamento Da Resistidade Elétrica Do Distrito Federal

“…Em regiões áridas ou semi-áridas relaciona-se com a textura e o teor de sais (RHOADES et al, 1989). A RE está associada especialmente à textura e permeabilidade dos solos sob clima temperado (HARTSOCK et al, 2005). Em climas tropicais úmidos ou semi-úmidos a RE depende principalmente da saturação em água, variando substancialmente em relação às estações do ano (AUERSWALD et al, 2001).…”

“…Em climas tropicais úmidos ou semi-úmidos a RE depende principalmente da saturação em água, variando substancialmente em relação às estações do ano (AUERSWALD et al, 2001). Recentemente, a RE é utilizada na agricultura de precisão, uma vez que pode relacionar-se com variáveis de manejo do solo por meio de funções de pedotransferência (FRAISSE et al, 2001;HARTSOCK et al, 2005 …”

Soil-landscape modeling and land suitability evaluation: the case of rainwater harvesting in a dry rangeland environment

“…However, conventional soil surveys are usually not useful for providing quantitative information about the spatial distribution of soil properties that are used in many environmental studies (Moore et al, 1993;Boer et al, 1996;Florinsky et al, 2002). Detailed soil maps that contain more information about soil properties and its spatial distribution are necessary for modern land evaluation, land suitability analysis, land resources management, land use planning, and other environmental modeling (Boer et al, 1996;Cheng et al, 1997;Zhu, 1997Zhu, , 1999Gobin et al, 2001;Park et al, 2001;Bishop et al, 2001;Hartsock et al, 2005;Salehi et al, 2003;Tomer and James, 2004;Quinn et al, 2005;Ziadat, 2005;Lark, 2007;Carre et al, 2007). Unfortunately, detailed soil maps usually cover very limited areas (Cooley, 2002;Romano and Palladino, 2002;Shi et al, 2004;Ziadat, 2007).…”

Geophysical‐Based Modeling of a Kettle Hole Catchment of the Morainic Soil Landscape

“…Also topsoil sand and clay contents (Carroll and Oliver, 2005), depth to highly conductive layers and structural horizons (Tabbagh et al, 2000), and the boundary between soil and saprolite (Chaplot et al, 2001) could be identified by using electrical resistivity. The ECa maps could be related to terrain attributes alone (Hartsock et al, 2005) and in combination with depth to bedrock (Zhu et al, 2010).…”