APPLICATION OF PEDOMETRIC APPROACH FOR PRODUCING SOIL NUTIENT DISTRIBUTION AND SOIL MAPS OF A RESEARCH FARM AT UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
Keywords:
soil nutrients, mapping, pedometrics, geo-statistics, ArcGISAbstract
The research evaluated the spatial distribution of nutrients in approximately one-hectare research farm at the University of Nigeria Nsukka using pedometric approach. A handheld GPS was used to determine the farm size, soil sampling points and site elevation. Soil samples were collected from 0-20 cm depth and analyzed following standard soil analytical methods to determine the soil physicochemical properties such as the particle size distribution, pH, total nitrogen, organic carbon, cation exchange capacity (CEC), exchangeable acidity (EA), exchangeable calcium and magnesium and available phosphorus. These parameters were evaluated and spatially interpolated using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). The maps produced showed that the area was dominated by the sand fraction followed by clay then silt. The pH of the soils ranged from extremely acidic to neutral (4.8-6.8) while organic matter ranged from 0.83 to 3.85 mg/kg. The CEC ranged from 4.0 to 32.4 cmol/kg, total nitrogen ranged from 0.08 to 0.81%, EA from 1 to 8 cmol/kg, exchangeable Ca ranged from low to moderate (0.4-3.4 cmol/kg) while exchangeable Mg ranged from low to high (0-1.6 cmol/kg). The available phosphorous ranged from 0.93-9.33 mg/kg. Nine prediction maps were developed using the ArcGIS 10.6 software. From the maps, available phosphorous was low in 94% and moderate in 6% of the area. Total N was low in 25%, moderate in 61% and high in 14% of the area. The pH values showed that 5% the area was extremely acidic, 31% very strongly acidic, 37% strongly acidic, 21% slightly acidic and 6% (neutral). The respective CEC distribution was 1%, 62% and 36% for low, moderate and high while EA values were 17% (low), 64% (moderate) and 19% (high). The exchangeable Ca content was low (100%) throughout the area while Mg was 18% (low), 81% (moderate) and 1% (high), organic matter was 27% (low), 68% (moderate) and 6% (high). For the utilitarian value of the study, mapping units were obtained by the combination of the soil physicochemical characteristics. This approach showed that it is possible to produce useful nine mapping units which are of practical application
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