Abstract
Soil salinity and sodicity can significantly reduce the value and the productivity of affected lands, posing degradation, and threats to sustainable development of natural resources on earth. This research attempted to map soil salinity/sodicity via disentangling the relationships between Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery and in-situ measurements (EC, pH) over the west Jilin of China. We established the retrieval models for soil salinity and sodicity using Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR). Spatial distribution of the soils that were subjected to hybridized salinity and sodicity (HSS) was obtained by overlay analysis using maps of soil salinity and sodicity in geographical information system (GIS) environment. We analyzed the severity and occurring sizes of soil salinity, sodicity, and HSS with regard to specified soil types and land cover. Results indicated that the models’ accuracy was improved by combining the reflectance bands and spectral indices that were mathematically transformed. Therefore, our results stipulated that the OLI imagery and PLSR method applied to mapping soil salinity and sodicity in the region. The mapping results revealed that the areas of soil salinity, sodicity, and HSS were 1.61 × 106 hm2, 1.46 × 106 hm2, and 1.36 × 106 hm2, respectively. Also, the occurring area of moderate and intensive sodicity was larger than that of salinity. This research may underpin efficiently mapping regional salinity/sodicity occurrences, understanding the linkages between spectral reflectance and ground measurements of soil salinity and sodicity, and provide tools for soil salinity monitoring and the sustainable utilization of land resources.
Highlights
Mapping and assessing the soil salinity and sodicity is a first step for salinity monitoring, salt-soil agriculture development, and environmental sustainability maintenance throughout the world [1,2]
The 157 soil samples were divided into two subsets
Laboratory analysis showed that the pH values of the sampled soils ranged from 5.90 to 10.45, with an average 8.70 that generally pointed to sodicity [1]
Summary
Mapping and assessing the soil salinity and sodicity is a first step for salinity monitoring, salt-soil agriculture development, and environmental sustainability maintenance throughout the world [1,2]. The west Jilin Province of China, typically a semiarid area, is among the world’s three largest sodic saline-alkali regions. Soil salinity and sodicity decreased the productivity of the croplands and affected diversity of the grassland plant species, which thwarted ecological sustainability and societal and economic development of the west Jilin Province. For better understanding the occurring extent and severity of soil salinity and sodicity, depicting accurate projection of future salinity dynamics and making decisions about land management and utilization in the region, mapping the local salinity, and sodicity is much needed [6]
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