Response characteristics of soil fractal features to different land uses in typical purple soil watershed

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 9;10(4):e0122842. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122842. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

As a fundamental characteristic of soil physical properties, the soil Particle Size Distribution (PSD) is important in the research on soil moisture migration, solution transformation, and soil erosion. In this research, the PSD characteristics with distinct methods in different land uses are analyzed. The results show that the upper bound of the volume domain of the clay domain ranges from 5.743 μm to 5.749 μm for all land-use types. For the silt domain of purple soil, the value ranges among 286.852~286.966 μm. For all purple soil land-use types, the order of the volume domain fractal dimensions is D clay<D silt<D sand. However, the values of D silt and D sand in the Pinus massoniana Lamb, Robinia pseudoacacia L and Ipomoea batatas are all higher than the corresponding values in the Citrus reticulate Blanco and Setaria viridis. Moreover, in all the land-use types, all of the parameters in volume domain fractal dimension (Dvi) are higher than the corresponding parameter values from the United States Department of Agriculture (Dvi(U)). The correlation study between the volume domain fractal dimension and the soil properties shows that the intensity of correlation to the soil texture and soil organic matter has the order as: D silt>D silt(U)>D sand (U)>D sand and D silt>D silt(U)>D sand>D sand(U), respectively. As it is compared with all Dvi, the D silt has the most significant correlativity to the soil texture and organic matter in different land uses of the typical purple soil watersheds. Therefore, Dsilt will be a potential indictor for evaluating the proportion of fine particles in the PSD, as well as a key measurement in soil quality and productivity studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture / methods*
  • Aluminum Silicates / analysis
  • Citrus / growth & development
  • Clay
  • Fractals*
  • Ipomoea batatas / growth & development
  • Particle Size*
  • Pinus / growth & development
  • Robinia / growth & development
  • Setaria Plant / growth & development
  • Soil / chemistry*
  • Soil / classification

Substances

  • Aluminum Silicates
  • Soil
  • Clay

Grants and funding

This work was funded by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2011C013); National Technology Support Program(2011BAD31B03); Construction Funds for Ecology Key Disciplines for Project 211 Southwest University, National Key Basic Special Foundation Project of China (2010CB95160402). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.