土壤时空变化研究的进展与未来

理解和表征土壤的时空变化是土壤学的基本任务,也是评估和合理发挥土壤功能的重要前提。土壤的时空变化与气候环境变迁、岩石圈风化、地表物质迁移、生物地球化学循环等圈层变化过程相耦合。围绕土壤时空变化研究的新近进展,本文综述并展望了土壤形成和演变过程、土壤形态学、土壤调查、土壤分类、数字土壤制图与土壤退化的发展态势。未来土壤时空变化研究的关键科学问题主要包括:地球表层系统中土壤与环境要素之间的多过程耦合机理与模拟、多尺度土壤-环境关系与模拟、多元土壤信息的融合机理与数据同化。未来重点研究领域将涉及到关键带科学引领的土壤形成和演变研究、多尺度数字土壤制图与时空变化预测、基于多传感器的土壤综合观测原理与技术、完整和详尽的国家和全球土壤资源清单及共享平台建设、区域土壤资源退化机理及其功能恢复。

Progress and Perspective of Studies on Soils in Space and Time

Soils evolve in space and time and soil changes are coupled with the changes in climate and environment, rock weathering and biogeochemical cycling. A better understanding and accurate quantification of soil spatio-temporal variation not only act as a basic research task of soil science but also are prerequisite for scientifically evaluating and reasonably maintaining soil functions. The main objective of this study was to review the recent studies on spatio-temporal soil variation. Dozens of latest related publications were reviewed, of which the topics included soil formation and evolution, soil morphology, soil survey, soil classification, digital soil mapping and soil degradation. It is anticipated that main scientific issues may include the simulation of coupling processes between soil and environment within the framework of earth surface system, precise modeling of the soil-landscape, and the data fusion and assimilation of multisource soil information. Based on the analysis, future priority areas of soils in space and time studies may include the soil formation and evolution driven by Critical Zone processes, digital soil mapping at various scales, the principle and technology for soil information acquisition based on multi-sensors, a complete and detailed national even global soil inventory and its sharing platform, and the processes of regional soil resource degradation and the recovery of soil functions.