The soil particle-size distribution has great influence on the plant yield. In the 2002/2003 growing season, plant and soil attributes of an experimental station of the Faculdade de Engenharia/UNESP (Ilha Solteira/SP - Brazil) were analyzed: common bean grain yield (GP), straw yield (SP), clay content (CL), silt (SI) and sand (SA) of a Red Latosol (Oxisol) under no-tillage. The objective was to analyze the variability of the evaluated attributes to characterize spatial dependences and to study linear and spatial correlations between them. An experimental grid for data collection was installed with 135 points in an area of 8.000 m². The data variability was low for CL, intermediate for SI and SA, and high for SP and GP. The majority of the attributes presented moderate spatial dependence, ranging from 19.8 m (SI), to 103.1 m (SA), and 29.8 m for the GP. An evident spatial correlation was observed between all those variables that presented, two by two, the highest correlation coefficients. However, among the lowest ones, the data suggested, in some cases, a similar spatial correlation.
geostatistics; spatial dependence; soil physical attributes; soil texture
