The measured values of physical properties in soils vary with the location in the field. The authors studied the variances of soil moisture content and dry density of volcanic ash soil. The field was No.29 grazing land of Hokkaido Agricultural Experiment Station in Sapporo (see
Fig.1). The measured areas were (a) 25m×20m, (b) 4m×4m, and (c) 2.5m×2m. The measured points of (a) were 30 intersecting-points across rectangular axes at intervals of 5m. The measured points of (b) were 25 coordinate-points with right-angled axes at intervals of lm, those of (c) were 30 intersecting-points across rectangular axes at intervals of 50cm (see
Fig.2). The samplers used had diameters of 3cm, 5cm, and 7cm (each 5cm in height), respectively.
Results obtained are summarized as follows:
(1) The standard deviations of soil moisture content by weight percent at 5-10cm, 28-33cm, and 40-45cm depth were 2.83-5.27, 9.20-17.81, and 8.53-15.63, respectively. The variance of subsoil was larger than that of surface soil (see
Table 3).
(2) The standard deviations of volumetric soil moisture content at 5-10cm, 28-33cm, and 40-45cm depth were 1.52-4.20, 2.70-6.76, and 2.43-4.90, respectively (see
Table 5). The variances of volumetric moisture content were smaller than those of moisture content by weight percent. In this field, therefore, it is desireable to express soil moisture content by volumetric moisture content than by weight percent.
(3) The number of sampling necessary for volumetric moisture content at 5-10cm, 28-33cm, and 40-45cm depths by using 5cm diameter sampler were 2-4, 5-10, and 4-12, respectively (α=5%, ε= 5%) (see
Table 5).
(4) The standard deviations of dry density at 5-10cm, 28-33cm, and 40-45cm depth were 0.028-0.052, 0.101-0.179, and 0.136-0.192, respectively (
Table 7).
(5) The number of sampling for dry density at 5-10cm depth using 5cm diameter sampler was 2-4 by using
Table 7, those of 28-33 cm and 40-45cm depth using 7cm diameter sampler were 23 and 43, respectively, by using
Table 8 (α=5%, ε=5%).
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