Soil Quality Evaluation Based on a Minimum Data Set (MDS)—A Case Study of Tieling County, Northeast China

Fengkui Qian, Yuanjun Yu, Xiuru Dong () and Hanlong Gu ()
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Fengkui Qian: College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110161, China
Yuanjun Yu: College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110161, China
Xiuru Dong: College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110161, China
Hanlong Gu: College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110161, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Soil quality is related to food security and human survival and development. Due to the acceleration of urbanization and the increase in abandoned land, the quality of topsoil has deteriorated, thus resulting in land degradation in recent years. In this study, a minimum data set (MDS) was constructed through principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the indicator data set for evaluating topsoil quality in Tieling County, northeast China. In addition, the soil quality index (SQI) was calculated to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of the topsoil quality and the influencing factors. The results showed that the MDS included total potassium (TK), clay, zinc (Zn), soil organic matter (SOM), soil water content (SWC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), pH, and copper (Cu), which could replace all other indicators for assessing the topsoil quality in the research region. The overall soil quality of Tieling County showed a trend of being low in the east and high in the west, and it gradually increased from the hilly area to the plain area. The topsoil quality of Tieling County is divided into one to five levels, with grade-I being the best and grade-V being the worst. The proportion of Grade-II and grade-III is the largest, which is 28.5% and 26.3%, respectively, and grade-V is the smallest, which is 9.6%. The evaluation results are consistent with field research, which can provide a reference for other topsoil quality evaluations, and it also provides a basis for the formulation of soil quality improvement measures.

Keywords: soil quality assessment; MDS; principal component analysis; Tieling County (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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