[Spatial heterogeneity of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in a monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest in Dinghushan, Guangdong, China].

Geostatistical techniques were used to quantify the spatial heterogeneity of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen of one monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest area in Dinghushan, Guangdong, China. The results demonstrated that a significant spatial autocorrelation existed between soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents in the Dinghushan monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest, such that 93.6% and 53.7% of their total spatial heterogeneity originated from their spatial autocorrelation. This observation agreed with a traditional statistics analysis showing a significant linear correlation between soil organic carbon and total nitrogen, and also their spatial autocorrelation existed at a landscape level. The best fit from an exponential model showed that soil organic carbon had high degree of spatial heterogeneity at a scale of 17.4 m.