[Scale-dependency of spatial variability of surface soil moisture under different land use types in Heihe Oasis,...

To study the surface soil moisture spatial variability and its scale effect is of significance to understand the real variability of soil moisture and to objectively provide a reference for constructing a logical sampling scheme. By using "re-sampling" method, this paper studied the scale-dependency of the spatial variability of soil surface moisture in the woodland and farmland in the oasis ecological system in the middle reaches of Heihe River. The results showed that the variation degree of the surface soil moisture in the test woodland and farmland increased with increasing soil moisture content, and the coefficient of variation (CV) became closer to the true value when the sampling scale increased. Under both dry and moist conditions, and when the sampling amplitude increased within a definite range, the CV, Moran's I index, nugget, and sill of soil moisture in the woodland and farmland as well as the variation range in the woodland all increased, while the variation range in the farmland under arid condition did not show a stable regular pattern. When the sampling density increased within a definite range, the nugget and variation range increased, but the CV, Moran's I index, and sill showed less change.