Spatial distribution of soil organic matter in a coal mining subsidence area

ABSTRACT

Underground mining has caused drastic disturbances to regional ecosystems and soil nutrients. Understanding the three-dimensional (3D) spatial distribution of soil nutrients in mining area farmland is crucial for agricultural production and environmental management. However, few studies have reported the 3D spatial distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) in coal mining subsidence area. In our study, a sequential Gaussian simulation (SGS) algorithm was used to analyse the spatial distribution of SOM based on observations of 180 soil samples in the Zhaogu mine in China. The results showed that the SOM content had considerable variation in spatial distribution at different soil depths (0–20, 20–40, 40–60?cm) and decreased with the increase in soil depth. The spatial variability of surface organic matter was the largest, and the coefficient of variation was 29.38%, which was moderately mutated. The spatial distribution of SOM also varied among slope locations. The SOM content was higher upslope and downslope than on the middle slope. In addition, given a threshold, SGS can be used to calculate the probability that the organic matter content at any position is lower or higher than the given value. The research results provide a reference for land reclamation and precision agriculture.