Summary: | The general objective of this study is to examine the spatial variability of soil nutrients
and pH in a flat region under subtropical climate using statistical and geostatistical
methods. The soil samples were taken from 50 points in the Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Engineering Campus, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia. Collection of the soil data were
conducted by systematic sampling and the Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to
determine the sample site locations. Semivariogram analysis was performed for the
spatial soil nutrients to examine the autocorrelation among the data set using GS+
software. The results showed that the soil nutrients potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and
nitrate have moderate spatial dependence, while there was a strong spatial dependence for
pH with available lag distance of 0.18 km to 0.41 km. The SURFER software used to
produce kriged maps for the spatial distribution and the results indicated the existing of
significant spatial variability of the soil nutrients in the study area.
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