We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Effects of land consolidation period of farmland on soil properties in purple region.
- Authors
Liu Juan; Du Jing; Wei Chaofu; Zhong Mang; Liu Bo
- Abstract
As a kind of human activity, the land consolidation deeply affects soil properties. The objective of this work was to analyze the impacts of land consolidation on soil physical and chemical properties such as soil depth, organic matter, aggregate stability and water retention capacity in 3 sample areas of purple region. Three different land consolidation histories were studied: One with 19 months (District I), one with 7 months (District II), and another within 1 month (District III). Samples of the soil surface were collected at the same points before and after the land consolidation using the GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning technique. Meanwhile, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were applied to explore the changes of relationship between soil properties under the effects of the land consolidation. The results showed that changes of the soil properties were observed after the land consolidation in the 3 districts. In a scale of short time (19 months in this paper), the length of land consolidation history still affected the changes of soil characteristics. Soils collected in District I after consolidation were characterized by better soil properties, such as higher silt content and clay content (P<0.05), lower sand content (P<0.05), higher organic matter and cation exchange capacity (increased by 9.59% and 13.84%, respectively, P<0.05), and lower available water capacity (decreased by 33.22%, P<0.05). In District II after consolidation, soil depth increased to 25 cm (P<0.05), and gravel content and soil available water capacity significantly increased (P<0.05) as well. The land consolidation may bring about serious soil compaction, and this negative influence mainly occurred within very short time just after the consolidation, which could be testified by District I. In District I after consolidation, bulk density and the percentage of aggregate destruction were respectively 14.63% and 58% higher than those before consolidation (P<0.05), while silt content and organic matter were respectively 14.16% and 24.95% lower than those before consolidation (P<0.05). And the increased available water capacity (P<0.05) in District II and I were mainly due to the thickened soil depth. The variability of most soil properties in District I and I decreased after the land consolidation, which indicated that the spatial distribution of soil properties grew more uniform through the consolidation in these districts. Based on the PCA, some changes in the relationships between soil properties under the effects of the consolidation were observed. The change of cluster analysis classifications in District I was the smallest, but the degree of the correlation relationships between the variables decreased. Although the change of cluster analysis classifications in District II was great, the degree of the correlation relationships between the variables increased. Both before and after the land consolidation, principal components of District I had the highest variance explained during 3 study districts. And in this study, there was no regularity on these changes among different consolidation histories, which may be due to the short time scale. But the two different methods of the hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward Linkage method and Average Linkage method) did not give the exactly same classifications. The Ward Linkage method allowed a better correlation between variables in the same group, while the other method had a better consistency with the results based on the PCA. In regard to the comparison of the 2 methods applied to classify the variables, it was obvious that more extensive information could be accessible by using more than one method. The results can serve as a basis for the further studies on the development of farmland consolidation in purple region.
- Subjects
SOIL science; SOIL depth; ORGANIC compounds; CLUSTER analysis (Statistics); SILT
- Publication
Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, 2015, Vol 31, Issue 10, p254
- ISSN
1002-6819
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.11975/j.issn.1002-6819.2015.10.034