Soil quality assessment of coastal wetlands in the Yellow River Delta of China based on the minimum data set |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China;2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China;1. Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran;2. Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy;3. Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, 10th km Makhsous Karaj Road, Tehran, Iran;1. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization, Ministry of Agriculture/Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, P.R.China;2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, P.R.China;1. College of Resources and Environment Science, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China;2. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China;3. Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;1. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China;2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China;3. Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Ecological Research of Red Soil, Ecological Experimental Station of Red Soil, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yingtan 335211, PR China |
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| Abstract: | Little information is available to assess the dynamic changes in wetland soil quality in coastal regions, though it is essential for wetland conservation and management. Soil samples were collected in Suaeda salsa wetlands (SWs), Tamarix chinensis wetlands (TWs), Suaeda salsa–Tamarix chinensis wetlands (STWs), freshwater Phragmites australis wetlands (FPWs) and saltwater Phragmites australis wetlands (SPWs) in three sampling periods (i.e., summer and autumn of 2007 and spring of 2008). According to the flooding characteristics of these wetlands, the study area could be grouped into three sub-regions: short-term flooding region (STFR), seasonal flooding region (SFR) and tidal flooding region (TFR). Soil quality was evaluated using the soil quality index (SQI), which was calculated using the selected minimum data set (MDS) based on principal components analysis (PCA). Our results showed that soil salt content (SSC), total carbon (TC), magnesium (Mg), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) and total sulfur (TS) consisted of a MDS among 13 soil properties. The SQI values varied from 0.18 to 0.66 for all soil samples, of which the highest and lowest SQI values were observed in TFR. The average SQI values were significantly higher in summer (0.50 ± 0.13) than in spring (0.37 ± 0.13) and autumn (0.36 ± 0.11) in the whole study area (p < 0.05). The average SQI values followed the order STFR (0.44 ± 0.12) > TFR (0.41 ± 0.15) > SFR (0.35 ± 0.09) although no significant differences were observed among the three regions (p > 0.05). SPWs and SWs soils showed higher SQI values (0.50 ± 0.10 and 0.47 ± 0.15, respectively) than TWs (0.30 ± 0.08) soils (p < 0.05). The SSC was the dominant factor of soil quality with its proportion of 34.1% contributing to the SQI values, followed by TC (24.5%) and Mg (24.1%). Correlation analysis also showed that SQI values were significantly negatively correlated with SSC. SSC might be a characteristic indicator of wetland soil quality assessment in coastal regions. The findings of this study showed that the SQI based on MDS is a powerful tool for wetland soil quality assessment. |
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| Keywords: | Soil quality assessment Minimum data set Principal components analysis Soil quality index Coastal wetlands |
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