Spatial Variation of Soil Phosphorus within a Drainage Ditch Network.

This article discusses the spatial variation of phosphorus within drainage ditch soils found on a farm in Princess Anne, Maryland. According to the authors the spatial distribution of phosphorus, iron, aluminum, and pH are autocorrelated. Several ditches contained distinct areas of high extractable phosphorus, which were associated with either point-or nonpoint-phosphorus sources. They concluded that the high level of spatial variation of soil phosphorus observed in the ditch network indicates that spatially distributed sampling may be necessary to target best management practices and to model phosphorus transport and fate in ditch networks.