Regional Soil Indicators on the North China Plain

摘要

Indicators are measurable attributes of the environment that can be monitored via field observation, field sampling, remote sensing, or compilation of existing data. Different users have different concerned issues and purposes. A set of indicators in different scales (farmland, county, region) selected should meet requirement of users and indicate the problems affecting the their purpose. For the farmers, some simple morphological properties such as soil color, soil texture and structure of profile were selected. These properties are summarized with 6 Chinese characters based on farmer's experiences in Luancheng County. The 6 Chinese Characters are Huang(yellow), Hei(black), Hui (grey), Sha(sand), Jia(buried soil layer) and Jian(calcareous concretion). For the decision maker in county level, a set of indicators should include soil morphological and physical properties, chemical properties, biological properties and productivity properties. Soil color, texture, bulk density, field capacity, wilting point are useful physical indicators. TOM, TN, AP, AK and trace elements are important chemical indicators. Yield, profit and product quality are productivity indicators. Water table is most important environmental indicator. The result of overall judge from the set of indicators show that soil quality is going well on the whole in Luancheng county (a case study).