Soil heterogeneity is known to cause variability of soil-water storage. Thus intensive sampling is required to characterize its spatial pattern. For irrigation management, it is necessary to measure the soil water content between irrigations. The objectives of this paper are to identify whether spatial patterns of soil water content in sprinkler irrigated area present temporal stability and whether this property presents spatial dependence. Temporal stability of spatial dependence structures and spatial correlation with clay content were studied. A 180 m long transect in an area irrigated by center pivot on the campus of ESALQ/USP, Piracicaba (SP), Brazil was sampled at every 2.83 m. Soil-water content was measured with neutron probe at 0.15 and 0.30 m depth, between two irrigations. Temporal stability was evaluated using linear correlation and the mean relative difference. Soil-water content pattern was persistent with time, i.e., the mean soil water content can be adequately estimated from a single sampling point. The spatial dependence of the soil-water content was described with semivariograms showing that the structural component accounted for more than 50% of the total variation. This variation structure remains stable with time and changes with depth. The strong spatial correlation between soil water content and clay content at the deeper layer was expressed by cross-semivariograms. This interrelation can be used to predict soil water content.
soil-water storage; temporal stability; spatial variability; geostatistics