Digital assessments of soil organic carbon storage using digital maps provided by static and dynamic environmental covariates

Understanding the vertical and lateral distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic carbon density (SOCD) is indispensable for soil use and environmental management because of their vital role in soil quality assessments. Primarily, they are needed in calculating soil organic carbon storage (SOCS). The objective of this research was to provide digital maps of SOC and SOCD variation as well as their uncertainties at multiple standardized depths (H1: 0–5, H2: 5–15, H3: 15–30, H4: 30–60 and H5: 60–100 cm) using a parsimonious model with optimized terrain-related attributes and satellite-derived data. SOCS were evaluated at soil subgroup levels. An area of about 808 km² with varying elevation, plant cover and lithology from the Miandoab region, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran was selected as a case study area. A total of 386 soil samples were collected from 104 profiles comprising various soil genetic horizons. A continuous spline function was then fitted to the target properties in advance of creating a dataset at five standard depth intervals (following the GlobalSoilMap project). These were then grouped into three classes including top (H1), middle (H2, H3 and H4) and bottom (H5) depths to ease interpretation. Static and dynamic covariates (30-m resolution) were derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) and a suite of Landsat-8 spectral imageries, respectively. Four candidate models including stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR), random forest (RF), cubist (CU) and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) Tree were tested in this study. Finally, the digital maps at 30-m resolution of SOC and SOCD and their uncertainties were prepared using the best-fit model and the bootstrapping method, respectively. Four soil subgroups (Gypsic Haploxerepts, Typic Calcixerepts, Typic Haploxerepts and Xeric Haplocalcids) were identified across the study area. The covariates had variable contributions on the evaluated models. The XGBoost Tree model generally outperformed other models for prediction of SOC and SOCD (R² = 0.60, on average). Regardless of soil subgroups, the uncertainty analysis showed that the SOCD map had a low prediction interval range value indicating high accuracy. Additionally, the highest SOCS and SOCD was observed at the top followed by middle and bottom depths in the study area. All subgroups exhibited a decreasing trend of SOCD with increasing depth. A similar trend was also observed for SOCS. The highest SOCD (on average) was observed in Gypsic Haploxerepts (4.71 kg C/m²) followed by Typic Calcixerepts (4.46 kg C/m²), Typic Haploxerepts (4.45 kg C/m²) and Xeric Haplocalcids (4.40 kg C/m²). Overall, the SOCS normalized by area within soil order boundaries was greater in Inceptisols than Aridisols across the study area. The findings of this study provide critical information for sustainable management of soil resources in the area for agricultural production and environmental health in the Miandoab region of Iran.     

A method to generate soilscapes from soil maps

Digital soil mapping for large areas is challenging if mapping resolution should be as high as possible and sampling should be as sparse as possible. Generally, the more complex the soil associations in a landscape, the more samples are required to systematically cover the entire feature space. Moreover, regions should be modeled separately if the patterns of spatial variation vary on subregion level. A systematic segmentation of a landscape into soilscapes is additionally important for a feasible application of soil‐sensing approaches. In this paper, we introduce a semiautomated approach to segment nominal spatial datasets based on the local spatial frequency distribution of the mapping units. The aim is to provide homogeneous and nonfragmented segments with smoothed boundaries. The methodological framework for the segmentation comprises different spatial and nonspatial techniques and focuses mainly on a moving‐window analysis of the local frequency distribution and a k‐means cluster analysis. Based on an existing soil map (1:50,000), we derived six segments for the Nidda catchment (Central Hesse, Germany), comprising 1600 km². As segmentation is based on a soil map, soilscapes are derived. In terms of the feature space, these soilscapes show a higher homogeneity compared to the entire landscape. Advantages compared to an existing map of landscape units are discussed. Segmenting a landscape as introduced in this study might also be of importance for other disciplines and can be used as a first step in biodiversity analysis or setting up environmental‐monitoring sites.     

Enhancing pedotransfer functions with environmental data for estimating bulk density and effective cation exchange capacity in a data‐sparse situation

Soil bulk density (BD) and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) are among the most important soil properties required for crop growth and environmental management. This study aimed to explore the combination of soil and environmental data in developing pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for BD and ECEC. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and random forest model (RFM) were employed in developing PTFs using three different data sets: soil data (PTF‐1), environmental data (PTF‐2) and the combination of soil and environmental data (PTF‐3). In developing the PTFs, three depth increments were also considered: all depth, topsoil (<0.40 m) and subsoil (>0.40 m). Results showed that PTF‐3 (R²; 0.29–0.69) outperformed both PTF‐1 (R²; 0.11–0.18) and PTF‐2 (R²; 0.22–0.59) in BD estimation. However, for ECEC estimation, PTF‐3 (R²; 0.61–0.86) performed comparably as PTF‐1 (R²; 0.58–0.76) with both PTFs out‐performing PTF‐2 (R²; 0.30–0.71). Also, grouping of data into different soil depth increments improves the estimation of BD with PTFs (especially PTF‐2 and PTF‐3) performing better at subsoils than topsoils. Generally, the most important predictors of BD are sand, silt, elevation, rainfall, temperature for estimation at topsoil while EVI, elevation, temperature and clay are the most important BD predictors in the subsoil. Also, clay, sand, pH, rainfall and SOC are the most important predictors of ECEC in the topsoil while pH, sand, clay, temperature and rainfall are the most important predictors of ECEC in the subsoil. Findings are important for overcoming the challenges of building national soil databases for large‐scale modelling in most data‐sparse countries, especially in the sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA).     

基于多源环境变量和随机森林的橡胶园土壤全氮含量预测

土壤全氮与土壤肥力和土壤氮循环紧密相关。掌握土壤全氮详细的空间分布信息对提高土壤肥力管理效率和更好地了解土壤氮循环至关重要。该文以儋州国营橡胶园为研究区域,采集2511个土壤样品,利用随机森林(random forest,RF)、逐步线性回归(stepwise linear regression,SLR)、广义加性混合模型(generalized additive mixed model,GAMM)以及分类回归树(classification and regression tree,CART)结合多源环境变量(成土母质、平均降雨量、平均气温和归一化植被指数)对研究区橡胶园土壤全氮含量进行空间预测,并通过754个独立验证点比较了4种模型的预测精度。结果表明RF对土壤全氮的预测值和实测值的相关系数(0.82)明显高于SLR(0.68)、GAMM(0.70)和CART(0.69),而RF的预测平均绝对误差(0.08836 g/kg)和均方根误差(0.13090 g/kg)均低于SLR、GAMM和CART。此外,RF模型预测结果能反映更为详细的局部土壤全氮含量空间变化信息,与实际情况更为接近。可见,RF模型可作为橡胶园土壤全氮含量空间分布预测的高效方法,为其他土壤属性的空间分布预测提供了一种新的方法。     

复杂景观环境下土壤厚度分布规则提取与制图

复杂景观环境下,土壤—环境关系知识的获取是预测性土壤制图的基础。为了探究复杂景观下土壤厚度分布与环境条件的关系,该文以黑河上游祁连山区典型小流域为研究区,应用模糊c均值聚类(fuzzy C-means cluster,FCM)和决策树(decision Tree,DT)方法,建立了一套获取土壤厚度分布与环境间关系知识的方法。利用2种方法结合获得流域内土壤厚度各分布等级的环境要素关键阈值与土壤-环境关系知识集,将所得环境阈值和知识集进行预测性制图,并通过野外独立样点对制图结果进行精度评价。结果表明:土壤厚度图的总体精度为74.2%,Kappa系数为0.659。该研究将2种方法结合获得了土壤厚度分布对应的土壤环境关键阈值和土壤-环境关系知识集,为复杂景观环境下土壤厚度的预测性制图提供了一种有效的解决方案。     

Mapping soil pH levels across Europe: An analysis of LUCAS topsoil data using random forest kriging (RFK)

Soil pH affects food production, pollution control and ecosystem services. Mapping soil pH levels, therefore, provides policymakers with crucial information for developing sustainable soil use and management policies. In this study, we used the LUCAS 2015 TOPSOIL data to map soil pH at a European level. We used random forest kriging (RFK) to build a predictive model of spatial variability of soil pH, as well as random forest (RF) without co-kriging and boosted regression trees (BRT) modelling techniques. Model accuracy was evaluated using a ten-fold cross-validation procedure. While we found that all methods accurately predicted soil pH, the accuracy of the RFK method was best with regression performance metrics of: R² = 0.81 for pH (H₂O) and pH (CaCl₂); RMSE = 0.59 for pH (H₂O) and RMSE = 0.61 in pH (CaCl₂); MAE = 0.41 for pH (H₂O) and MAE = 0.43 in pH (CaCl₂). Dominant explanatory variables in the RF and BRT modelling were topography and remote sensing variables, respectively. The generated maps broadly depicted similar spatial patterns of soil pH, with an increasing gradient of soil pH from north to south Europe, with the highest values mainly concentrated along the Mediterranean coast. The mapping could provide spatial reference for soil pH assessment and dynamic monitoring.     

青海三江源地区土壤容重转换函数的建立与比较

Bulk density (BD) is an important soil physical property and has significant effect on soil water conservation function. Indirect methods, which are called pedotransfer functions (PTFs), have replaced direct measurement and can acquire the missing data of BD during routine soil surveys. In this study, multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neuron network (ANN) methods were used to develop PTFs for predicting BD from soil organic carbon (OC), texture and depth in the Three-River Headwater region of Qinghai Province, China. The performances of the developed PTFs were compared with 14 published PTFs using four indexes, the mean error (ME), standard deviation error (SDE), root mean squared error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R²). Results showed that the performances of published PTFs developed using exponential regression were better than those developed using linear regression from OC. Alexander (1980)-B, Alexander (1980)-A and Manrique and Jones (1991)-B PTFs, which had good predictions, could be applied for the soils in the study area. The PTFs developed using MLR (MLR-PTFs) and ANN (ANN-PTFs) had better soil BD predictions than most of published PTFs. The ANN-PTFs had better performances than the MLR-PTFs and their performances could be improved when soil texture and depth were added as predictor variables. The idea of developing PTFs or predicting soil BD in the study area could provide reference for other areas and the results could lay foundation for the estimation of soil water retention and carbon pool.     

人为污染土壤中Cd、Pb、和Zn的化学有效性：地球化学反应与口服生物有效性评价

The most recent in vitro tests used to determine metal bioaccessiblility are generally time-consuming and expensive.This study aimed at determining potential relationships between the concentrations of metals extracted using single-extraction methods and the concentrations of bioaccessible metals assessed by a harmonised in vitro test,the Unified BARGE Method (UBM).A total number of 27 soil samples were collected from kitchen gardens and lawns with various physicochemical parameters and contamination levels.Significant relationships were obtained between Cd,Pb and Zn extracted in gastric and gastrointestinal phases and using single extractions.The best relationhips were established using acetic and citric acids for Cd,whereas for Pb,citric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) were identified as the best extractants.These relationships were improved by means of a linear multiple regression with a downward stepwise procedure involving agronomic parameters (soil cation exchange capacity and assimilated P).This method highlighted the fact that the cation exchange capacity and P contents in soils were the two main parameters that controlled the human bioaccessibility of Cd,Pb and Zn in the gastric phase.Besides,the metal concentrations extracted with the acetic and citric acids correlated well with the metal concentrations in the gastric and gastrointestinal phases,suggesting that the bioaccessible metals were mainly in a soluble form,weakly bound to the organic matter and associated with the carbonates and the Fe and Mn oxides/hydroxides in soils.     

基于不同地表曲面模型预测土壤有机碳含量

Local terrain attributes,which are derived directly from the digital elevation model,have been widely applied in digital soil mapping.This study aimed to evaluate the mapping accuracy of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration in 2 zones of the Heihe River in China,by combining prediction methods with local terrain attributes derived from different polynomial models.The prediction accuracy was used as a benchmark for those who may be more concerned with how accurately the variability of soil properties is modeled in practice,rather than how morphometric variables and their geomorphologic interpretations are understood and calculated.In this study,2 neighborhood types (square and circular) and 6 representative algorithms (Evans-Young,Horn,Zevenbergen-Thorne,Shary,Shi,and Florinsky algorithms) were applied.In general,35 combinations of first-and second-order derivatives were produced as candidate predictors for soil mapping using two mapping methods (i.e.,kriging with an external drift and geographically weighted regression).The results showed that appropriate local terrain attribute algorithms could better capture the spatial variation of SOC concentration in a region where soil properties are strongly influenced by the topography.Among the different combinations of first-and second-order derivatives used,there was a best combination with a more accurate estimate.For different prediction methods,the relative improvement in the two zones varied between 0.30％ and 9.68％.The SOC maps resulting from the higher-order algorithms (Zevenbergen-Thorne and Florinsky) yielded less interpolation errors.Therefore,it was concluded that the performance of predictive methods,which incorporated auxiliary variables,could be improved by attempting different terrain analysis algorithms.     

Mapping soil erodibility in southeast China at 250 m resolution: Using environmental variables and random forest regression with limited samples

Soil erodibility (K factor) mapping has been accomplished mainly by soil map-linked or geo-statistical interpolation. However, the resulting maps usually have coarse spatial resolution at a regional scale. The objectives of this study were a) to map the K factors using a set of environmental variables and random forest (RF) model, and b) to identify the important environmental variables in the predictive mapping on a regional scale. We collected 101 surface soil samples across southeast China in the summer of 2019. For each sample, we measured the particle size distribution and organic matter content, and calculated the K factors using the nomograph equation. The hyperparameters of RF were optimized through 5-fold cross validation (m_try = 2, n_tree = 500, p = 63), and a digital map with 250 m resolution was generated for the K factor. The lower and upper limits of a 90% prediction interval were also produced for uncertainty analysis. It was found that the important environmental variables for the K factor prediction were relief, climate, land surface temperature and vegetation indexes. Since the existing K factor map has an average polygonal area of 6.8 km², our approach dramatically improves the spatial resolution of the K factor to 0.0625 km². The new method captures more distinct differences in spatial details, and the spatial distribution of the K factor derived from RF prediction followed a similar pattern with kriging interpolation. This suggests the presented approach in this study is effective for mapping the K factor with limited sampling data.     

Hand-feel soil texture observations to evaluate the accuracy of digital soil maps for local prediction of soil particle size distribution: A case study in Central France

Digital maps of soil properties are now widely available. End-users now can access several digital soil mapping (DSM) products of soil properties, produced using different models, calibration/training data, and covariates at various spatial scales from global to local. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide easy-to-understand tools to communicate map uncertainty and help end-users assess the reliability of DSM products for use at local scales. In this study, we used a large amount of hand-feel soil texture (HFST) data to assess the performance of various published DSM products on the prediction of soil particle size distribution in Central France. We tested four DSM products for soil texture prediction developed at various scales (global, continental, national, and regional) by comparing their predictions with approximately 3 200 HFST observations realized on a 1:50 000 soil survey conducted after release of these DSM products. We used both visual comparisons and quantitative indicators to match the DSM predictions and HFST observations. The comparison between the low-cost HFST observations and DSM predictions clearly showed the applicability of various DSM products, with the prediction accuracy increasing from global to regional predictions. This simple evaluation can determine which products can be used at the local scale and if more accurate DSM products are required.     

Potential of multi‐objective models for risk‐based mapping of the resilience characteristics of soils: demonstration at a national level

Policy makers rely on risk‐based maps to make informed decisions on soil protection. Producing the maps, however, can often be confounded by a lack of data or appropriate methods to extrapolate using pedotransfer functions. In this paper, we applied multi‐objective regression tree analysis to map the resistance and resilience characteristics of soils onto stress. The analysis used a machine learning technique of multiple regression tree induction that was applied to a data set on the resistance and resilience characteristics of a range of soils across Scotland. Data included both biological and physical perturbations. The response to biological stress was measured as changes in substrate mineralization over time following a transient (heat) or persistent (copper) stress. The response to physical stress was measured from the resistance and recovery of pore structure following either compaction or waterlogging. We first determined underlying relationships between soil properties and its resistance and resilience capacity. This showed that the explanatory power of such models with multiple dependent variables (multi‐objective models) for the simultaneous prediction of interdependent resilience and resistance variables was much better than a piecewise approach using multiple regression analysis. We then used GIS techniques coupled with an existing, extensive soil data set to up‐scale the results of the models with multiple dependent variables to a national level (Scotland). The resulting maps indicate areas with low, moderate and high resistance and resilience to a range of biological and physical perturbations applied to soil. More data would be required to validate the maps, but the modelling approach is shown to be extremely valuable for up‐scaling soil processes for national‐level mapping.