Study of the Relationship between different Soil Properties in Agricultural Fields, Kyee Inn Village, Myanmar

Abstract

An understanding of the physical and chemical properties of soils is necessary due their relationship with productivity in agricultural fields. A study was conducted in 480 hectares of agricultural fields at Kyee Inn, Pyinmana Township, Naypyitaw, Myanmar to determine the relationship between different soil properties (bulk density, soil moisture, soil pH, cation exchange capacity, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Soil samples were collected on a grid method (300 m × 300 m) from three places in each grid at a depth of 0-15 cm. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to determine the coordinates of sampling points. The collected samples were composited to 80 soil samples and analyzed. To compute the relationship between soil properties, simple linear correlation was performed using statistix 8^th version. Finally, the relationship among the soil properties was shown by overlay mapping in Arc Map 10.5 with the spatial analytical function of ArcGIS software. The results revealed soil pH was significantly and negatively correlated with total nitrogen (r = -0.412), and significantly and positively correlated with total phosphorus (r = 0.248). Total potassium content was highly significant and positively correlated with soil moisture (r = 0.782). The relationships that are commonly found among soil properties are evident in this study with a positive correlation of soil organic matter and total nitrogen (r = 0.058), a negative correlation of bulk density with soil organic matter(r = -0.191) and soil moisture (r = -0.066), a positive correlation of cation exchange capacity with total potassium (r = 0.204), and a negative correlation of cation exchange capacity with bulk density (r = 0.018), but these were not statistically significant. The observed information from this study can provide a clear understanding of the relationship among soil properties, which positively or negatively affect nutrient availability.