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Impacts of terrain attributes and human activities on soil texture class variations in hilly areas, south-west China

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Abstract

Knowledge of soil texture variations is critical for agricultural and engineering applications because texture influences many other soil properties. This study used random forest method to evaluate the effects of human activities and topographic parameters on the spatial variability of soil texture in hilly areas where soil parent material was uniform. The study site covers 252 km2 and is located in the Upper Yangtze River Basin of south-west China. A total of 3636 samples were collected from the cultivated soils at a depth of 20 cm of dryland (sloping field and terraced land) landscape. The soil texture class for each sample was estimated by experienced soil scientists in the field. Two soil texture classes (loam and clay) were observed in the watershed. Eleven terrain parameters were derived from a digital elevation model with a resolution of 30 m. Compared with loamy soils, clayey soils were mostly observed in the areas with lower elevation and gentle slopes. The outcome of random forest indicated that human activities and elevation had strong effects on soil texture class variations across the study site. Further results showed that the relative importance of terrain parameters to soil texture class variations varied with dryland landscape. Topographic wetness index and elevation were the most important variables for sloping field and terraced land landscapes, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, 400716, China

    Ai-Di Li & Hong-Bin Liu

  2. Chongqing Land Resources and Housing Surveying and Planning Institute, Jiangbei, Chongqing, 400020, China

    Ai-Di Li

  3. Rubber Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences, Danzhou, Hainan, 571737, China

    Peng-Tao Guo

  4. College of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, 400716, China

    Wei Wu

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  1. Ai-Di Li
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  2. Peng-Tao Guo
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  3. Wei Wu
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  4. Hong-Bin Liu
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Correspondence to Hong-Bin Liu.

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Li, AD., Guo, PT., Wu, W. et al. Impacts of terrain attributes and human activities on soil texture class variations in hilly areas, south-west China. Environ Monit Assess 189, 281 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-5997-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-5997-0

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