A field study was carried out aiming at performing exploratory statistics and verifying the spatial distribution of soil bulk density of a cohesive Yellow Latosol of the Bahia Costal Tablelands to examine the viability of using that attribute for identification of cohesive horizon in the soil profile. Thirty undisturbed soil samples were taken from the faces of a 1.0 m width x 5.0 m length x 1.5 m depth trench. The soil samples were taken from surface to 1.1-m depth in 0.2-m increments at 1-m intervals in each trench face, totaling five positions per face. The statistical analysis performed on the data included measures of position and dispersion followed by identification of normal distribution and occurrence of outliers. It was found that the soil bulk density showed a normal distribution, low coefficient of variation and the tendency of spatial continuity, which indicates that is not possible to identify the presence of cohesive layer based solely on the bulk density of that kind of soil.
Bulk density; cohesive soil; soil properties
