Spatial variability pattern and mapping of selected soil properties in hilly areas of Hindukush range northern, Pakistan

Abstract

Soil samples at 0-20 cm depth were collected from major crop areas of Hindukushmountainous range, District Chitral, extreme Northwestern Pakistan, during April 2014 toassess their physico-chemical properties and spatial distribution pattern. 103 soil sampleswere analyzed and maps were created by geostatistical technique of inverse distanceweighting and kriging techniques using GIS and GS win-7 computer software. The soiltexture ranged from silt loam to dominantly sandy loam, slightly acidic to alkaline andmoderate to highly calcareous but with no salinity indication. Soil organic matter washigher than 2 % in about 75 % of samples. Soil pH, EC and lime showed slight dependenceon each other with r values from 0.4 to 0.5 while OM varied independently as indicated bytheir lower correlation values. Semivariogram analysis showed that soil pH, lime, OM hadstrong spatial dependence (nugget-sill ratio,