Spatial Variability of Soil Properties Under Different Pasture Grasses in West and Central Kentucky.

Spatial variability of soil chemical, physical, and biological properties such as soil organic matter, total soil nitrogen, soil nutrient status, pH, hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, aggregate stability, and macro fauna are greatly affected by the land use and land cover. The present work tries to address the spatial pattern of these properties under four different pastures in Western and Central KY. Soil samples were collected from three layers representing the depth from 0-30 cm in three transects (Orchard grass, KY 31 tall fescue, and Max Q tall fescue) in Western Ky. Each transect was 170 m with a 10 m lag distance between samples. A fourth transect, which is representing the blue grass region in central Kentucky goes through the center of large sink hole and represent at least two soil catena. The last transect is 160 m long and was sampled every 5 m. Using classical and spatial statistical methods, we characterized and compared the spatial heterogeneity, and spatial dependence between several soil properties under the different pasture systems in the four locations.