Multi-scale spatial variability of soil salinity in typical fields of the Yellow River Delta in summer

Abstract

Soil salinization severely hinders the development of agricultural economy in the Yellow River Delta. Clarifying the spatial variability of soil salinity at multiple scales in the field is of great significance for the improvement and utilization of saline soils and agricultural production. In this study, by dividing the three dimensions of field, plot and ridge, we collceted 152 sets of conducti-vity data through field survey sampling in a summer maize field in Kenli County of the Yellow River delta. The methods of classic statistics, geostatistics and Kriging interpolation were used to analyze the spatial variability and scale effects of multi-scale soil salt in the field. The results showed that soil in this area was moderately salinized, with the extent of soil salinity moderately varying at three scales. From the field, plot to the ridge scale, with the decreases of sampling scale, the variability of soil salinity increased and the standard deviation increased. The ridge and plot scales showed strong spatial correlation. The optimal model was Gaussian model, which was mainly affected by structural factors. The field scale was of medium spatial correlation, with exponential model as the optimal one, which was influenced by both random factors and structural factors. The spatial distribution characteristics of soil salinity at different scales were significantly different. The spatial chara-cteristics at small scale were masked at large scale, showing obvious scale effect. The distribution of soil salinity at the micro-ridge scale between ridges had obvious variation. Soil salt content gradually decreased with the micro-topography from high to low, while vegetation coverage changed from sparse to dense.