Spatial analysis of water characteristic functions in a sandy podzol underpine forest

Water characteristic functions of 351 undisturbed soil cores taken at three profiles on a two-dimensional regular grid with a spacing of 0.15 m are sh own to vary linearly and nonlinearly in space. To describe their heterogene ity, linear and nonlinear scaling factors are independently derived with so il horizons as separate similarity classes. Their estimated empirical distr ibutions are different, and the spatial statistics show a comparable integr al scale only in the horizontal direction (similar to 0.15 m). In the verti cal direction, nonlinear scaling factors exhibit an integral scale of simil ar to 0.2 m, and linear scaling factors exhibit a pure nugget effect. On a small sample subset, other soil material properties (e.g., texture) were al so analyzed. In a multiple linear regression between those material propert ies and scaling factors the organic carbon content is a significant determi nistic factor at the site.