Use of empirical Bayesian kriging for revealing heterogeneities in the distribution of organic carbon on agricultural lands

Abstract

Empirical Bayesian kriging (EBK) is a modern mapping method, which accounts for the uncertainty of parameter estimates in functions describing the changes in property variance with increasing the survey area (variograms). Cartograms plotted using ordinary kriging and EBK have been compared for the data on the content of organic carbon in an isolated land with agrogray soils (Greyzemic Phaeozems (Loamic, Aric)) located in the Bryansk Opol’e region. It is shown that the cartograms of EBK errors reveal the structure of the spatial variability of the property, which cannot be revealed by other methods. Thus, the EBK method can be recommended for revealing heterogeneities in disputable cases.