Spatial variability of soil chemical properties in Moso bamboo forests of China

This study investigates the spatial variability of soil organic matter (SOM), soil organic carbon (SOC) and pH in the upper 20-cm layer and 20-40 cm layer in Moso bamboo(Phyllostachys pubescens Pradelle) forests using a geostatistics model.Interpolation maps of SOM,SOC,and pH were developed using ordinary kriging (OK) and inverse distance weighted(IDW)methods.The pH,SOC,and SOM of the two soil layers ranged from 4.6 to 4.7,from 1.5 to 2.7 g kg-' and from 20.3 to 22.4 g kg-1,respectively.The coefficient of variation for SOM and SOC was 29.9-43.3% while a weak variability was found for pH.Gaussian and exponential models performed well in describing the spatial variability of SOC contents with R2 varying from 0.95 to 0.90.