Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major indicator of long-term sustenance of agricultural production system. Apart from sustaining productivity, SOC plays a crucial role in context of climate change. Keeping in mind these potentials, spatial variation of SOC contents of a fruit orchard comprising several arid fruit plantations located at arid region of India is assessed in this study through geostatistical approaches. For this purpose, surface and subsurface soil samples from 175 locations from a fruit orchard spreading over 14.33 ha area were collected along with geographical coordinates. SOC content and soil physicochemical properties of collected soil samples were determined followed by geostatistical analysis for mapping purposes. Average SOC stock density of the orchard was 14.48 Mg ha−1 for 0- to 30-cm soil layer ranging from 9.01 Mg ha−1 in Carissa carandas to 19.52 Mg ha−1 in Prosopis cineraria block. Range of spatial variation of SOC content was found about 100 m, while two other soil physicochemical properties, e.g., pH and electrical conductivity (EC) also showed similar spatial trend. This indicated that minimum sampling distance for future SOC mapping programme may be kept lower than 100 m for better accuracy. Ordinary kriging technique satisfactorily predicted SOC contents (in percent) at unsampled locations with root-mean-squared residual (RMSR) of 0.35–0.37. Co-kriging approach was found slightly superior (RMSR = 0.26–0.28) than ordinary kriging for spatial prediction of SOC contents because of significant correlations of SOC contents with pH and EC. Uncertainty of SOC estimation was also presented in terms of 90 % confidence interval. Spatial estimates of SOC stock through ordinary kriging or co-kriging approach were also found with low uncertainty of estimation than non-spatial estimates, e.g., arithmetic averaging approach. Among different fruit block plantations of the orchard, the block with Prosopis cineraria (‘khejri’) has higher SOC stock density than others.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Batjes, N. H. (2006). Soil carbon stocks of Jordan and projected changes upon improved management of croplands. Geoderma, 132(3–4), 361–371.
Bhattacharya, T., Pal, D. K., Mandal, C., & Velayutham, M. (2000). Organic carbon stock in Indian soils and their geographical distribution. Current Science, 79, 655–660.
Bishop, T. F. A., & Lark, R. M. (2008). A comparison of parametric and non-parametric methods for modelling a coregionalization. Geoderma, 148, 13–24.
Bivand, R. S., Pebesma, E., & Gomez-Rubio, V. (2013). Applied spatial data analysis with R (Second ed.). NY: Springer http://www.asdar-book.org/.
Carter, G. P., Miskewitz, R. J., Isukapalli, S., Mun, Y., Vyas, V., Yoon, S., Georgeopoulos, P., & Uchrin, C. G. (2011). Comparison of kriging and cokriging for the geostatistical estimation of specific capacity in the Newark Basin (NJ) aquifer system. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, Toxical Hazard Substances and Environmental Engineering, 46(4), 371–377.
Pan, C., Zhao, H., Zhao, X., Han, H., Wang, Y., & Li, J. (2013). Biophysical properties as determinants for soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in grassland salinization. PloS One, 8(1), e54827.
Conant, R. T., Paustian, K., & Elliott, E. T. (2001). Grassland management and conversion into grassland: effects on soil carbon. Ecological Applications, 11, 343–355.
Ersahin, S. (2001). Comparing ordinary kriging and cokriging to estimate infiltration rate. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 67(6), 1848–1855.
Galloway, J. N., Townsend, A. R., Erisman, J. W., Bekunda, M., Cai, Z., Freney, J. R., Martinelli, L. A., Seitzinger, S. P., & Sutton, M. A. (2008). Transforamtion of nitrogen cycle: recent trends, questions, and potential solutions. Science, 320, 889–892.
Goovaerts, P. (1998). Geostatistical tools for characterizing the spatial variability of microbiological and physico-chemical soil properties. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 27, 315–334.
Homma, K., Takeshi, H., Tatauhiko, S., Supapoj, N., Matsumoto, N., & Kabaki, N. (2003). Toposequential variation in soil fertility and rice productivity of rainfed lowland paddy fields in mini-watershed (Nong) in Northeast Thailand. Plant Production Science, 6(2), 147–153.
Lark, R. M. (2000). A comparison of some robust estimators of the variogram for use in soil survey. European Journal of Soil Science, 51, 137–157.
Martinez, G., Vanderlinden, K., Giraldez, J. V., Espejol, A. J., Rodriguez, E., Ordonez, R., & Muriel, J.L. (2009). Use of apparent electrical conductivity as secondary information for soil organic carbon spatial characterization. In: Estudios en la Zona no SaturadadelSuelo (Eds Orlando Silva, Rojas Ramirej and Jesus Carrera). Vol IX, Barcelona, pp. 1–8.
Mayes, M., Marin-Spiotta, E., Szymanski, L., Erdogan, M. A., Ozdogan, M., & Clayton, M. (2014). Soil type mediates effects of land use on soil carbon and nitrogen in the Konya Basin, Turkey. Geoderma, 232–234, 517–527.
McIntosh, P. O., & Allen, R. B. (1993). Soil pH declines and organic carbon increases under hawkweed (Hieraciumpilosella). New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 17(1), 59–60.
Meghwal, P. R., Akath, S., Pradeep, K., & Morwal, B. R. (2014). Diversity, distribution and horticulturalpotential of Cordia myxa L.: a promising underutilized fruit species of arid and semiarid regions of India. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 61(8), 1633–1643.
Min, K., Lehmeier, C. A., Ballantyne, F., Tatarko, A., & Billings, S. A. (2014). Differential effects of pH on temperature sensitivity of organic carbon and nitrogen decay. Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 76, 193–200.
Munoz-Rojas, M., Jordan, A., Zavala, L. M., De la Rosa, D., Abd-Elmabod, S. K., & Anaya-Romero, M. (2012a). Organic carbon stocks in Mediterranean soil types under different land uses (southern Spain). Solid Earth, 3, 375–386.
Munoz-Rojas, M., Jordan, A., Zavala, L. M., De la Rosa, D., Abd-Elmabod, S. K., & Anaya-Romero, M. (2012b). Impact of land use and land cover changes on organic carbon stocks in Mediterranean soils (1956–2007). Land Degradation & Development. doi:10.1002/ldr.2194.
Pebesma, E. J., & Wesseling, C. G. (1998). Gstat, a program for geostatistical modelling, prediction and simulation. Computers & Geosciences, 24(1), 17–31.
Pebesma, Z. E. (2003). Gstat user’s manual. Dept. of Physical Geography, Utrecht University P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands (http://www.gstat.org/gstat.pdf).
Pebesma, E.J., & Bivand, R.S. (2005). Classes and methods for spatial data in R. R News 5 (2), http://cran.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/.
Post, W. M., Emanuel, W. R., Zinke, P. J., & Stangenberger, A. G. (1982). Soil carbon pools and world life zones. Nature, 298, 156–159.
Reynolds, J. F., Stafford Smith, D. M., Lambin, E. F., Turner, B. L., Mortimore, M., Batterbury, S. P. J., Downing, T. E., Dowlatabadi, H., Fernandez, R. J., Herrick, J. E., Huber-Sannwald, E., Jiang, H., Leemans, R., Lynam, T., Maestre, F. T., Ayarza, M., & Walker, B. (2007). Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science, 316, 847–851.
Rossiter, D. G. (2012). Technical note: co-kriging with the gstat package of the R environment for statistical computing. http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/dgr2/teach/R/R_ck.pdf.
Sahrawat, K.L. (2006). Plant nutrients: sufficiency and requirements. In Encyclopedia of Soil Science, 2nd Edison (Ed. R.Lal), Philadelphia; 1306–1310.
Santra, P., Kumwat, R. N., Mertia, R. S., Mahla, H. R., & Sinha, N. K. (2012). Soil organic carbon stock density and its spatial variation within a typical agricultural farm from hot arid ecosystem of India. Current Science, 102(9), 1303–1309.
Schlesinger, W. H., Reynolds, J. F., Cunningham, G. L., Huenneke, L. F., Jarrell, W. M., Virginia, R. A., & Whitford, W. G. (1990). Biological feedbacks in global desertification. Science, 247, 1043–1048.
Schrumpf, M., Schulze, E. D., Kaiser, K., & Schumacher, J. (2011). How accurately can soil organic carbon stocks and stock changes be quantified by soil inventories? Biogeosciences, 8, 1193–1212.
Shyampura, R. L., Singh, S. K., Singh, R. S., Jain, B.L., & Gajbhiye, K. S. (2002). Soil series of Rajasthan. NBSS&LUP publication no. 95, NBSS&LUP, Nagpur, pp. 329.
Singh, S. K., Singh, A. K., Sharma, B. K., & Tarafdar, J. C. (2007b). Carbon stock and organic carbon dynamics in soils of Rajasthan, India. Journal of Arid Environment, 68, 408–421.
Singh, S. K., Kumar, M., Sharma, B. K., & Tarafdar, J. C. (2007a). Depletion of organic carbon, phosphorus, and potassium stock under a pearl millet based cropping system in the arid region of India. Arid Land Research and Management, 21(2), 119–131.
Thompson, J. A., & Kolka, R. K. (2005). Soil carbon storage estimation in a forested watershed using quantitative soil landscape modeling. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 69, 1086–1093.
United Nations. (2011). Global drylands: a UN system-wide response. Full Report. United Nations Environment Management Group. pp. 131.
Velayutham, M., Pal, D. K., & Bhattacharya, T. (2009). Organic carbon stocks in soils of India. In R. Lal, J. M. Kimble, & B. A. Stewart (Eds.), Global climate change and tropical ecosystems (pp. 71–96). Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers.
Vitharana, U. W. A., Van Meirvenne, M., Cockx, L., & Bourgeois, J. (2006). Identifying potential management zones in a layered soil using several sources of ancillary information. Soil Use Manage, 22, 405–413.
Walkley, A., & Black, I. A. (1934). An examination of Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter, and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Science, 37, 29–38.
Watson, R. T., Noble, I. R., Bolin, B., Ravindramath, N. H., Verardo, D. J., & Dokken, D. J. (2000). Land use, land use change, and forestry (p. 375). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Webster, R., & Oliver, M. A. (2007). Geostatistics for environmental scientists (pp. 315). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Wiesmeier, M., Barthold, F., Blank, F., & Kogel-Knabner, I. (2011). Digital mapping of soil organic matter stocks using random forest modeling in a semi-arid steppe ecosystem. Plant and Soil, 340, 7–24.
Wiesmeier, M., Steffens, M., Kolbl, A., & Kogel-Knabner, I. (2009). Degradation and small scale spatial homogenization of top soils in intensively grazed steppes of Northern China. Soil Tillage Research, 104, 299–310.
Acknowledgment
We sincerely express our thanks to the Director, ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur for his encouragement and support to carry out the present study. We also express our thanks to technical persons involved in soil sampling, processing and laboratory determination.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, A., Santra, P., Kumar, M. et al. Spatial assessment of soil organic carbon and physicochemical properties in a horticultural orchard at arid zone of India using geostatistical approaches. Environ Monit Assess 188, 529 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5522-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5522-x