Abstract
Soil salinization is a global problem, which threatens agricultural productivity and sustainability, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Soil salinity and moisture are important factors affecting agricultural production in arid regions. However, few studies have considered the influence of topographic factors on the spatial distribution patterns of soil salinity and moisture. This research aims to explore the spatial distribution characteristics and its influencing factors of soil salinity and moisture in the oasis farmland of arid areas. In this paper, GIS and geostatistics methods were applied to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and variability of soil salinity and moisture, and then the corresponding proxy variables were used to quantitatively study the influence factors by using the geographical detector model. The results showed the coefficients of the variation of soil salinity and moisture to be 71.25% and 31.89%, respectively. There was moderate spatial autocorrelation of soil salinity and moisture. Soil salinity in the southwest was higher than in the northeast, and soil moisture in the northwest and southeast were lower than in the center and the northeast edge. The main influencing factors were available phosphorus, roughness of terrain, alkaline nitrogen, available potassium, and elevation. Combined action of topographic factors and soil nutrients has a major influence on the spatial distribution of soil salinity and moisture. Therefore, developing a suitable fertilizer regime under different topographic conditions could be an effective way to promote the sustainability of oasis agriculture in arid areas.
Highlights
Salinization is a worldwide problem and is acute in semi-arid areas
We found a moderate degree of spatial autocorrelation for both soil salinity and moisture, indicating that the spatial variability of both conditions was affected by structural factors and random factors working together
This paper analyzed the spatial variability of soil salinity and moisture in the cultivated layer of Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, in the typical agricultural irrigation area of the Ili River valley, China
Summary
Salinization is a worldwide problem and is acute in semi-arid areas. The area of salinized soil in the world is about 9.55 × 10 8 hm, among which the salinized soil area accounts for about 3.78% of the total area in China [1,2], most of which is distributed in arid and semi-arid areas of China [3]. The stability of an oasis ecological environment is related to the survival of humans, social stability, and sustainable development of the economy in the whole arid area. The problem of soil salinization and secondary soil salinization caused by the rapid development of oasis irrigation agriculture restricts sustainable development of oasis agriculture and affects the overall stability of the oasis ecological environment [4,5]. The spatial heterogeneity of soil salinity and moisture is an important factor affecting agricultural production, and the distribution of both impacts the spatial distribution of soil salinization to a certain extent [6,7]. Exploring the spatial distribution pattern and its driving factors of soil salinity and moisture can provide a basis reference for improving soil salinization, increasing agricultural production, and maintaining regional stability
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