Management zones and soil electrical conductivity
Apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) can indicate the physical and chemical properties of the soils. Therefore, apparent soil electrical conductivity is used for mapping areas of homogeneous soil characteristics to identify management zones. Researchers from the Széchenyi István University, HUN-REN research institutes, and the Eötvös Loránd University aimed to determine whether ECa is suitable for mapping soil properties of fields with topographic heterogeneity. Ákos Bede-Fazekas, assistant professor in our department, is the last author of the paper published in the Q1-ranked scientific journal "Agronomy" (IF = 3.7). The research led by István Mihály Kulmány was conducted on two neighbouring fields in Fejér county, Hungary, with contrasting topographic heterogeneity and revealed that the quality and strength of the relationship between ECa and soil remarkably differed in the two studied fields. In homogeneous topographic conditions, ECa correlated with soil properties, while it was determined mostly by elevation in heterogeneous topographic conditions. Consequently, ECa-based soil mapping can only be used to characterise the soil, thus delineating management zones under homogeneous topographic conditions.
