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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 44(3)

Soil quality indices and their application in the hilly loess plateau region of China

Mingxiang Xu A B E , Yunge Zhao A B C , Guobin Liu A B and Robert M. Argent D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.

B Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.

C State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, CAS and MWR, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.

D Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.

E Corresponding author. Email: mingxiang_xu@yahoo.com.cn

Australian Journal of Soil Research 44(3) 245-254 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR05083
Submitted: 15 June 2005  Accepted: 9 February 2006   Published: 5 May 2006

Abstract

Soil quality in the hilly Loess Plateau region of China is seriously degraded due to hillside cultivation and severe soil erosion. No established methods are available for evaluating the regional soil quality nor has integrated soil quality assessment been conducted in the region. Our objectives were to (i) develop soil quality models and assessment methods, (ii) verify the representativeness of selected soil quality indicators, and (iii) evaluate landuse effects on regional soil quality. The research was conducted on 707 km2 of typical hilly Loess Plateau in Shaanxi province, China. Soil samples (total 208) were taken from 5 catchments under 10 different landuse types. Two integrated evaluation methods (weighted summation and weighted product) and 2 indicator sets (a whole and a minimum set) were tested, each producing a soil quality index. Quantitative evaluation of soil quality in different landuse types was also performed. The results showed that the weighted product method provided better differentiation of soil quality between landuses. The minimum indicator set of 8 soil quality indicators, selected by factor analysis from a complete set of 29 soil attributes, reflected all or most of the information of the whole set in assessing regional soil quality. Soil quality index (SQI) values under different landuse types ranged from 0.842 for natural woodland to 0.150 for orchard. Index values for orchard, cropland, revegetated grassland, and planted grassland were significantly less than those for 6 other landuse types, whereas planted shrubland, planted woodland, and natural grassland indices were significantly less than those for greenhouse, natural shrubland, and natural woodland. No significant difference in SQI was found between orchard, cropland, revegetated grassland, and planted grassland, or between planted shrubland and planted woodland. Overall, it was found that soil quality was generally poor across the region, except for natural woodland, shrubland and greenhouse areas.

Additional keywords: soil quality index, soil quality evaluation, soil quality classification.


Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.40301028 and No.40401026), ‘Western star’ Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We thank Ansai Field Research Station for its support in soil sampling and field experiments.


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