Abstract
Land use/land cover (LULC) change widely occurs during urbanization and can affect the functionality of soil ecosystems by altering soil physicochemical properties. However, few studies have evaluated the impacts of LULC change on soils in arid regions. This study investigates LULC change patterns during 2010–2017 in Lanzhou New Area, China based on remotely sensed data (Chinese GaoFen-1 and Advanced Land Observing Satellite). We identified five main land use change types and reference native grassland and farmland to determine soil properties at different depths. Principal component analysis and scatter matrix were employed to evaluate the effect of LULC change on soil properties. The results showed that LULC changes that occurred in Lanzhou New Area were characterized by the rapid growth of construction and bare land (increased by 13.06% and 5.97%, respectively) at the expense of farmland (decreased by 25.38%). The conversion of native grassland to artificial grassland and bare land, and farmland to bare land had similar effects on soil properties; i.e., a significant decline and a lower level in total nitrogen and soil organic carbon. The farmland to construction land transition deteriorated soil nutrients and increased soil compaction by both increasing bulk density (BD, mean = 1.63 g cm−3) and enhancing sand content by 69.21%. All land use change types increased BD and decreased soil water content and saturated soil water content when compared to the reference areas. These results indicate that changes in LULC have significant impacts on soil physicochemical properties. Thus, it is essential to optimize land planning and improve soil quality in arid ecosystems to ensure sustainable resource management and ecosystem conservation.
Highlights
Land use/land cover (LULC) changes are mostly induced by human activities and driven by socioeconomic and environmental conditions
There was no significant difference in soil saturated water content (SSWC) and soil water content (SWC) in the transition from native grassland to bare land, native grassland to artificial grassland, and farmland to bare land, indicating that these land use change types have a similar impact on soil hydrologic properties
Urbanization is the predominant process that leads to large-scale LULC change; it is important to monitor soil quality induced by these changes for better land planning and ecosystem conservation in ecologically fragile areas
Summary
Land use/land cover (LULC) changes are mostly induced by human activities and driven by socioeconomic and environmental conditions. In arid areas, the changes in the soil organic carbon and nutrient contents due to the shift from farmland to abandoned land are mostly determined by soil and climate conditions [14]. Jeong and Dorn [28] observed that LULC changes related to urbanization, in an area with a desert climate, accelerated soil erosion. Studies mostly focused on urban pollution characteristics and their related soil properties, such as SOC, pH, and soil nitrogen, after land use change [30,31]. Located in an arid desert region of Northwest China, the Lanzhou New Area, which was established in 2012, has experienced intensive LULC changes due to rapid urbanization in recent years, providing a unique case study opportunity to assess the impacts on soil structure and soil nutrients during early-stage urbanization in an arid environment.
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