Assessment of Horizantal and Vertical Variabilities of Soil Quality using Multivariate Statistics and Geostatistical Methods

The aim of this study is to examine the horizantal and vertical spatial changes of soil quality (SQ) in rice-cultivated soils located on the Bafra Deltaic Plain-one of the most important alluvial deltaic plains and production centers of Turkey. The study examines these spacial changes by calculating the soil quality index (SQI) for soils 0-30cm and 30-60cm deep. For SQI calculations, seventeen potential physicochemical SQ indicators of eighty-three soil samples were assessed. Quality indicators to be used in these calculations were selected by considering the clay content, correlation relationship, and principal components analysis (PCA) of potential quality indicators. Clay, silt, sand, electrical conductivity (EC), exchangeable calcium (Ca-exc), and exchangeable magnesium (Mg-exc) were selected as quality indicators, and silt was found to be the most important quality indicator for both soil depths. The SQ of researched soils changed from low to high for both soil depths.