Investigation of spatial distribution of soil and water properties by use of geostatistical in Mangrove forest of Qeshm Island

In this study، the main objective was to assess the spatial variation of chemical and physical soil and water properties. Using this information، the studies also aimed at establishing a pasture rehabilitation experiment in the mangroves of Qeshm Island. To this aim، soil and water samples were analyzed for a set of factors including pH، EC، Oc، Na، Ca، Mg، K، SP، ESP، SAR، Clay، Sand، Silt، water pH and water EC. The kriging method was applied to derive the spatial variation of chemical and physical soil and water properties. Experimental variograms were calculated for soil and water properties. The variograms of EC، pH، Clay، sand، Na، Oc، SAR، water EC and water pH indicated a high amount of spatial autocorrelation fitted by spherical models. However، SP and K showed large nugget effects. In addition، diagnostic measures of RMSE، MAE and R suggested kriging to feature appropriate accuracy to estimate the spatial variability. Results of cross-validation for EC، pH، Clay، sand، Na، Oc، SAR، water EC and water pH also showed high accuracy of the estimates. Therefore، geostatistics is concluded to enable capturing the spatial variability and estimating the majority of soil and water attributes across such Mangroves.