Abstract:To study spatial variability and distribution of soil nutrients on a large scale is an important prerequisite for regional balanced fertilization and precision agriculture, but rather time-consuming, labor-consuming and costly because it involves large volumes of soil samples that have to be collected from the fields and analyzed in lab for contents of soil nutrients. The geostatistical and GIS interpolation techniques available can help effectively solve this problem. Based on the 432 soil sampling sites in the Bohai coastal area, spatial variability and distribution patterns of soil nutrients in 0~30 cm and 30~60 cm soil layers of the region were explored. Soil nutrients, such as alkalytic nitrogen, available phosphorus, readily available potassium, organic matter and total nitrogen, in the samples were measured for conventional statistical and geostatistical analyses and mapping using the kriging spatial interpolation method. Results show that the variations of the same one nutrient element in the 0~30 cm and 30~60 cm soil layers were the similar in degree, and all the elements varied moderately except potassium, which did quite vigorously. The nutrients were higher in the 0~30 cm soil layer than in the 30~60 cm one in mean content. All the nutrient indicators in the two soil layers show good spatial structure. The soil in the studied area is relatively rich in available P and readily available K, but rather poor in alkalytic N, organic matter and TN. Generally speaking, the soil is rather infertile and the 30~60 cm soil layer is more than the 0~30 cm soil layer.