Spatial and temporal variability of the soil mechanical resistance to penetration in areas with and without site-specific chemical application

The objective of this work was to evaluate the behavior of the spatial and temporal variabilities with the technique of rescaling semivariograms. Study variable was the soil mechanical resistance to penetration (SMRP) in the layers 0-0.1, 0.1-0.2, 0.2-0.3 m for the years of 1999 to 2001, under two management systems: with (WSS) and without site-specific nutrient management (NoSS). Results demonstrated that the variable SMRP presented spatial variability with different behavior, according to the soil layer and study year. The variable SMRP presented temporal variability in both management systems. These two systems did not influence the space behavior of the study variable (RMSP). Reescaling of the semivariograms reduced the computing time of model adjustment, and did not present differences in behavior or range of the space variability compared to the not rescaled semivariograms.