Kahsay Araya, Haile Mitiku, Gebresamuel Girmay, Mohammed Muktar
Department of Natural Resources Management, Adigrat Univeristy, Adigrat, Ethiopia.
Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Heliyon. 2024 Dec 13;11(1):e41185. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e41185. eCollection 2025 Jan 15.
Assessing soil quality is imperative to diagnose soil functioning and recognize inappropriate soil managements. However, the absence of defined indicators and their scoring methods and lack of universally accepted soil quality indexing frameworks complicate soil quality assessment, given soil systems complexity and diversity caused by variation in soil formation factors. This study was aimed to assess soil quality of three land use managements (CL, cropland; GR, grassland; SL, shrubland) in Northern Ethiopia, using two data sets (Total data set (TDS) and minimum data set (MDS)), linear and non-linear indicator transformation techniques and three indexing scenarios (Additive (SQI), nemoro (SQI) and weighted additive (SQI)). To screen MDS and TDS members, one-way analysis of variance and principal component analysis were applied. Twenty-two soil indicators responsible to changes in land use were screened as members of TDS. Four indicators (silt, mean weight diameter, visual evaluation of soil structure, and exchangeable calcium) were selected to establish MDS. The study results demonstrated a clear impact by land use managements to SQ in the study area. In all cases, CL soils scored significantly lower SQI values than those of GL and SL. Moderate (III) and low (IV) quality grade soils have the largest spatial share in the area. Soil organic carbon and structural stability were found to be the most important indicators explaining soil quality and its spatial variability. Overall, it was demonstrated by the study that soil quality deterioration is a serious issue particularly for soils in CL and GL, suggesting the essentiality to consider revisions and improvements in soil management. A positive and significant correlation was demonstrated among SQIs, revealing that all SQIs were sensitive to measure land use management impacts to soil quality. However, SQI was estimated and differentiated better when using non-linear indicator transformation and MDS indicator selection approach in the SQI (SQI) than other SQIs, and thus was suggested for future soil quality studies in areas of similar soil and climate environments.
评估土壤质量对于诊断土壤功能和识别不当的土壤管理至关重要。然而，由于土壤形成因素的变化导致土壤系统的复杂性和多样性，缺乏明确的指标及其评分方法以及缺乏普遍接受的土壤质量指数框架，使得土壤质量评估变得复杂。本研究旨在利用两个数据集（总数据集（TDS）和最小数据集（MDS））、线性和非线性指标转换技术以及三种指数情景（加法（SQI）、内梅罗（SQI）和加权加法（SQI）），评估埃塞俄比亚北部三种土地利用管理方式（CL，农田；GR，草地；SL，灌木地）的土壤质量。为了筛选MDS和TDS成员，应用了单因素方差分析和主成分分析。筛选出22个对土地利用变化有响应的土壤指标作为TDS的成员。选择了四个指标（粉砂、平均重量直径、土壤结构视觉评估和交换性钙）来建立MDS。研究结果表明，土地利用管理方式对研究区域的土壤质量有明显影响。在所有情况下，CL土壤的SQI值显著低于GL和SL土壤。中等（III）和低（IV）质量等级的土壤在该区域的空间份额最大。土壤有机碳和结构稳定性被发现是解释土壤质量及其空间变异性的最重要指标。总体而言，该研究表明土壤质量恶化是一个严重问题，特别是对于CL和GL中的土壤，这表明有必要考虑对土壤管理进行修订和改进。SQI之间呈现出正相关且显著相关，表明所有SQI对衡量土地利用管理对土壤质量的影响都很敏感。然而，在SQI（SQI）中使用非线性指标转换和MDS指标选择方法时，SQI的估计和区分效果比其他SQI更好，因此建议在类似土壤和气候环境的地区用于未来的土壤质量研究。
