Evaluation of tobacco soil fertility suitability of the Sanmenxia area, China, based on geographic information systems

Abstract

The growth of flue-cured tobacco is sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. Excellent tobacco leaf production is strictly restricted by regional cultivated lands. For the purpose of reasonable utilization and scientific management of Sanmenxia tobacco fields, it is meaningful to evaluate the soil fertility suitability of tobacco crops quantitatively and objectively. In this study, the global positioning system (GPS) technology was used to obtain sample point information automatically. Based on the analysis of fertility properties of soil samples collected from the Sanmenxia tobacco planting regions in Henan Province, we present the index system of soil fertility suitability for tobacco crops. The integrated evaluation of soil fertility suitability was studied with six indices, including organic matter, pH value, available nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), available potassium (K), and chlorine (Cl−1) content of surface soil. The subjective grade value was calculated according to S-type and parabola-type functions of the effect of evaluation factors on tobacco crops. Further, the weight value of soil fertility suitability indices was calculated by the method of Hiberarchy analysis. The soil fertility suitability level was evaluated and classified. The suitability map of the Sanmenxia tobacco planting regions in Henan Province was then drawn with the geographic information system (GIS) software mapGIS. It was found that highly suitable fields were mainly distributed in the high mountains in the Southwestern part of the investigated regions where soil pH value and the contents of organic matter were medium, but the contents of available P and available K were higher, accounting for 79.36% of the whole area. Suitable fields were 17% of the whole area, mainly distributed in the middle part of the investigated regions where soil pH value was higher. Unsuitable fields existed in the northern-east and middle part of the Sanmenxia where the contents of soil Cl− was very high, accounting for 3.51% of the whole regions.