Response characteristics of soil fractal features to different land uses in typical purple soil watershed.

Abstract

As a fundamental characteristic of soil physical properties, the soil Particle Size Distribution (PSD) is important in the research on soil moisture migration, solution transformation, and soil erosion. In this research, the PSD characteristics with distinct methods in different land uses are analyzed. The results show that the upper bound of the volume domain of the clay domain ranges from 5.743 μm to 5.749 μm for all land-use types. For the silt domain of purple soil, the value ranges among 286.852~286.966 μm. For all purple soil land-use types, the order of the volume domain fractal dimensions is D clayD silt(U)>D sand (U)>D sand and D silt>D silt(U)>D sand>D sand(U), respectively. As it is compared with all Dvi, the D silt has the most significant correlativity to the soil texture and organic matter in different land uses of the typical purple soil watersheds. Therefore, Dsilt will be a potential indictor for evaluating the proportion of fine particles in the PSD, as well as a key measurement in soil quality and productivity studies.