HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL KRIGING OF SOIL PROPERTIES ALONG A TRANSECT IN SOUTHERN NEW-MEXICO

The application of geostatistical analysis to evaluate a soil transect was explored by measuring soil properties in four equal depths at 30-m intervals along a transect of 1800-m length in southern New Mexico. Semivariograms were computed for clay, sand, coarse fragments, and CaCO3 percent for each depth along the transect. The horizontal semivariograms were combined to form one semivariogram to account for the anisotropy in the measurement procedure. A similar procedure was used for vertical semivariograms to account for the anisotropy in the measurement units. The combination of the equations describing the horizontal and vertical semivariograms was used in a kriging program. The kriging program was used to estimate values of soil properties at 2245 grid points from the 240 original measurements. Study results are discussed.