A GEOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF SOIL WATER CONTENT AT THE FIELD SCALE: THE INFLUENCE OF SOIL TEXTURE AND TILLAGE

Improved understanding of the variability of soil water content (SWC) is demanded for agricultural management. The soil water distribution at a field scale as influenced by the textural heterogeneity and tillage was studied on a 4.5 ha field near Moravský Svätý Ján village in southwest Slovakia. The variation of SWC followed the textural variations within the scope of the research field. On the loamy sand soil, there was found no influence of tillage on spatial correlation of SWC data there. However, in clay loam the marked spatial anisotropy due to direction of agricultural traffic was detected. We have assumed that tillage has disturbed the spatial structure of SWC in northern direction in case of the clay loam soil.