干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Data on water soluble fluorine (F) content of 470 soil samples (collected at a grid of 10 x 10 km) of the different agro-climatic zones of the Haryana State, India, were statistically analyzed for their spatial variability. The frequency distribution of the data was found to be normal. The mean values of the water soluble F were 4.42, 4.60, 4.23, 2.47 and 2.12 mg/kg for the hot and arid, hot and dry, hot and semi-dry, hot and sub-humid, and hot and humid zones of the State, respectively, with a mean value of 4.19 mg/kg for the entire State. This distribution of the F levels was mainly attributed to the soil pH as a linear correlation between the two parameters was statistically significant. The highest variation of F was observed in the hot and semi-dry zone (coefficient of variation, CV = 54.6%). In other zones the variation was low to medium (CV = 24.1 to 38.4%). Finally, a relationship between standard error and number of observations has been worked out so as to use it to estimate the number of samples to be collected in future F monitoring in the soils of the study area for a given precision and probability level.