Investigation of spatial distribution of soil fertility factors in Maraghe farms by means of geographic information systems

Agricultural soils are valuable resources and their protection and fertility management play an important role in the sustainable agriculture. One of the suitable tools that make it possible to manage the soil fertility is the use of soil nutrients map. The main goal of this research is to study the spatial structure and mapping the spatial distribution of some soil micronutrients using geostatistics and GIS techniques. To do this research, 390 mixed soil samples along with their GPS-based coordinates were taken from Maragheh agricultural soils. Soil samples were analyzed and the amounts of EC, pH, %OC, P, K, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu and B, were determined. For geostatistical analyses the elements semivariograms were developed and then the suitable theory model fitted to the experimental semivariograms. The information generated from the fitted models were applied to make use of ordinary kriging For estimating the value of microelements in the unknown locations. All above mentioned steps were performed in the GIS environment that resulted in generating soil fertility maps (zonation maps).