Environmental Earth Sciences

, Volume 69, Issue 8, pp 2743–2761 | Cite as

Studies on the reflectance spectral features of saline soil along the middle reaches of Tarim River: a case study in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China

  • Fei Zhang
  • Tashpolat Tiyip
  • Jianli Ding
  • Hsiangte Kung
  • Verner C. Johnson
  • Mamat Sawut
  • Nigara Tashpolat
  • Dongwei Gui
Original Article
First Online:
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Accepted:

Abstract

There has been growing interest in the use of reflectance spectroscopy as a rapid and inexpensive tool for soil characterization. In this study, 53 soil samples were collected from the oasis in the Weigan and Kuqa River delta along the middle reaches of Tarim River to investigate the level of soil chemical components in relation to soil spectral. An approach combining spectral technology and multi-variant statistical analysis was used to determine the reflectance spectral features of saline soil. The spectral data was first pretreated to remove noises and absorption bands from water, which eliminated influence from instrument errors and other external background factors. Several spectral absorption features were calculated for several saline soil samples to confirm that soil at the same salinity level had similar absorption spectral properties. Secondly, a correlation relationship between reflectance spectra and salinity factors was estimated by bivariate correlation method. Fourteen salinity factors including eight major ions and soil electrical conductivity (EC), soil salt content (SSC), pH, and total dissolved solid (TDS) in the saline soil were evaluated. Datasets of the salinity factors that correlated significantly with field data measurements of reflectance rate and the corresponding spectrum data were used to construct quantitative regression models. According to the multiple linear regression analysis, SSC, SO4 2−, TDS, and EC had a correlation coefficient at 0.746, 0.908, 0.798, and 0.933 with the raw spectral data, respectively, which confirmed strong correlation between salinity factors and soil reflectance spectrum. Findings from this study will have significant impact on characterization of spectral features of saline soil in oasis in arid land.

Keywords

Saline soil Reflectance spectrum features Hyperspectral data Delta oasis of Weigan-Kuqa River 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the National Key Program for Developing Basic Research Science (2009CB421302), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (40961025 and 40901163), the Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environment Information Systems (2010KF0003SA), PhD Graduates in the Scientific Research Foundation (BS110125), Xinjiang Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars (2012211B04), Autonomous Region of University Scientific Research of cultivation of young scientific research fund project (XJEDU2012S03). The authors wish to thank the referees for providing helpful suggestions to improve this manuscript.

Supplementary material

12665_2012_2096_MOESM1_ESM.docx (466 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 466 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fei Zhang
    • 1
  • Tashpolat Tiyip
    • 1
  • Jianli Ding
    • 1
  • Hsiangte Kung
    • 2
  • Verner C. Johnson
    • 3
  • Mamat Sawut
    • 1
  • Nigara Tashpolat
    • 1
  • Dongwei Gui
    • 4
  1. 1.College of Resources and Environment ScienceXinjiang UniversityUrumqiChina
  2. 2.Department of Earth SciencesMemphis UniversityMemphisUSA
  3. 3.Department of Physical and Environmental SciencesColorado Mesa UniversityGrand JunctionUSA
  4. 4.Cele National Station of Observation and Research for Desert-Grassland Ecosystem in XinjiangCeleChina

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