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Horizontal variability of some soil properties within homogeneous stands of coastal salt meadow vegetation
Author(s) -
Vestergaard Peter
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.1982.tb01199.x
Subject(s) - soil science , vegetation (pathology) , homogeneous , soil water , coefficient of variation , bulk density , water content , spatial variability , environmental science , mathematics , geology , geotechnical engineering , medicine , statistics , pathology , combinatorics
Eighty soil samples, from the depth of 0–8 cm, taken at random within eight stands of homogeneous salt meadow vegetation along the shores of the Baltic in Denmark, were analysed for bulk density, content of organic matter, actual water content, pH, and for soluble salts, expressed by specific conductivity and waterextractable Na, K, Ca and Mg. For each stand and soil parameter the horizontal soil variability was expressed by the coefficient of variation. It was found, that the variability was higher in the upper than in the lower geolittoral stands, and that it was higher in the soil soluble salts than in the physical soil parameters. Differences in the ratios between the actual values of the individual soil parameters, expressed by co–variance, were found to be a further aspect of soil variability within the stands. The relationships between number of samples, coefficient of variation and analysis precision were discussed.