Comparison of Functional Pedodiversity in Two Detailed Soil Map Units (A Case Study: Faradonbeh Plain, Chaharmahal-Va-Bakhtiari Province)

Comparison of the land suitability variations among the soil map units in viewpoint of pedodiversity indices may provide a good assessment of the soil mapping precision. The main objective of this study was to assess the significance of functional pedodiversity thorough two detailed map units for irrigated wheat and potato for class and subclass levels of suitability in the Faradonbeh plain, using Shannon and Simpson indices. First, soil samples at 35 and 47 sampling sites in the D and E map units, respectively, were collected from the depths of 0-25, 25-50, 50-75 and 75-100 cm. Then, the qualitative land suitability class and subclass of all sampling points for each studied land use, was evaluated based on simple limitation method. Although both indices showed higher values in the subclass level of suitability, but the average functional pedodiversity of the studied map units, indicate a significant difference (95% confidence level), just in this suitability level. It was observed that the significance of the pedodiversity indices is not influenced by the land use type or the analyzed diversity index. Hence, as a supplementary procedure to study the intra-unit variation of the soil maps, use of diversity indices may provide some worthwhile information