JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

This study covers a large agricultural and industrial area of Isfahan province, including three types of land use, i.e., agricultural, uncultivated, industrial and urban types. A total of 275 samples from surface soil (0-20 cm) were collected and water soluble fluoride concentrations of them were measured. The spatial structure of water soluble fluoride in the soils was determined by omnidirectional variogram in the GS⁺ software. The spatial distribution of water soluble fluoride in the soil was mapped by employing the point kriging method in the SURFER software. The results showed that the mean of the water soluble fluoride concentration in Isfahan soils (0.85 mg L^-1) was higher than the mean world soils (0.53 mg L^-1). The water soluble fluoride showed moderate spatial dependence, indicating that the spatial variability of water soluble fluoride was mainly controlled by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The mean water soluble fluoride concentration was significantly higher in agricultural and urban areas, as compared with the uncultivated land. This could be due to application of phosphate fertilizer in agricultural areas and the atmospheric fallout of fluoride from the industrial sources such as steel factories. According to the generated kriging map, the higher concentration of fluoride was mainly recorded around the Zayande Rood River and in the central and western parts of the study area.