Soil microbial biomass (Cmic) is the indicator of ecosystem productivity. Although Cmic represents big part of a temperate pasture ecosystem the biomass of the vegetation of the vegetation represents even bigger part, yet most of the carbon-energy balance and nutrient mobility happens through the Cmic. The purpose of this study was to assess the spatial variability of the soil Cmic using geostatistics in surface soil of pasture. Cmic was determined using 77 soil samples from the upper 20 cm of soil along a transect in a pasture of 1.35 ha. The results varied from 547.7 to 1223.8 μg CO2-C g–1 soil. The exponential model fits the best semivariogram model for Cmic and exhibited spatial dependence with a range of influence of approximately 294.1 m.

spatial variability; soil microbial biomass carbon; kriging; pasture

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia