Study on the Drying Process and the Influencing Factors of Desiccation Cracking of Cohesive Soda Saline-Alkali Soil in the Songnen Plain, China

Zhuopeng Zhang, Xiaojie Li, Jianhua Ren () and Shuang Zhou
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Zhuopeng Zhang: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
Xiaojie Li: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Jianhua Ren: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
Shuang Zhou: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: The surface of cohesive soda saline-alkali soil in the Songnen Plain of China exhibits obvious desiccation cracking phenomenon during water evaporation. Quantitative research on the process and influencing factors of desiccation cracking are significant for determining the mechanical properties of salt-affected soil, improving the salinization status and the local ecological environment. This study aims to conduct laboratory-controlled cracking experiments on soda saline-alkali soils, and to regularly measure the soil moisture and the cracking status of 40 soil samples. After processing the crack images uniformly, crack characteristics including crack length, crack area, contrast texture feature, and box-counting fractal dimension are extracted. The results indicate that the decrease in soil moisture can be divided into three stages such as fast evaporation stage, slow evaporation stage and stable evaporation stage, and that the evaporation rate shows a linear negative correlation with soil salinity. The measurements also indicate that crack length rapidly increases and reaches stability with a decrease in water content compared with the crack area. The high correlation between different crack characteristics and the soil total salinity (correlation coefficient from 0.44 to 0.95) shows that salt content is the dominant factor affecting the desiccation cracking of soda saline-alkali soil. A multiple linear regression prediction model was finally established based on crack characteristics for different salinity parameters with high prediction accuracy for Na + , EC and total salinity (R 2 > 0.91 and RPD > 2.5) and also certain prediction accuracy for Cl − and CO 3 2− (R 2 > 0.66 and RPD > 1.5).

Keywords: Songnen Plain; desiccation cracking; salinity; soil salinization; multiple linear (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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