Predicting and delineating soil temperature regimes of China using pedotransfer function

Soil temperature regime(STR)is important for soil classification and land use.Generally,STR is delineated by estimating the mean annual soil temperature at a depth of 50 cm(MAST50)according to the Chinese Soil Taxonomy(CST).However,delineating the STR of China remains a challenge due to the difficulties in accurately estimating MAST50.The objectives of this study were to explore environmental factors that influence the spatial variation of MAST50 and generate an STR map for China.Soil temperature measurements at 40 and 80 cm depth were collected from 386 National Meteorological Stations in China during 1971–2000.The MAST50 was calculated as the average mean annual soil temperature(MAST)from 1971–2000 between 40 and 80 cm depths.In addition,2048 mean annual air temperature(MAAT)measurements from 1971 to 2000 were collected from the National Meteorological Stations across China.A zonal pedotransfer function(PTF)was developed based on the ensemble linear regression kriging model to predict the MAST50 in three topographic steps of China.The results showed that MAAT was the most important variable related to the variation of MAST50.The zonal PTF was evaluated with a 10%validation dataset with a mean absolute error(MAE)of 0.66°C and root mean square error(RMSE)of 0.78°C,which were smaller than the unified model with MAE of 0.83°C and RMSE of 0.96°C,respectively.This study demonstrated that the zonal PTF helped improve the accuracy of the predicted MAST50 map.Based on the prediction results,an STR map across China was generated to provide a consistent scientific base for the improvement and application of CST and land use support.

A pedodiversity pattern: taxonomically established soil orders in China

Under the framework of Chinese Soil Taxonomy, all the 14 established soil orders including Histosols, Anthrosols, Spodosols, Andisols, Ferralisols, Vertisols, Aridisols, Halosols, Gleyosols, Isohumisols, Ferrisols, Luvisols, Cambisols and Primosols, forming a complicated pedodiversity pattern resulted from both various natural conditions and long history of human activities, are introduced with brief descriptions. At the end of the paper, the selected references in English are listed for foreign readers to get further information in detail if needed.

Fragipan Horizons: Definition, Properties, Genesis, and Influence on Soil Behavior

Many Missouri forest soils exhibit fragipans, which influence soil productivity, ecosystem services and land management. Fragipan bearing soils tend to occur where loess thickness is moderate (1 to 2 meters) or where the soil profile exhibits evidence of mass wasting of weathered limestone residuum. Consensus is consolidating around the self-weight collapse of loess and residuum after repeated wetting and desiccation. The use of gravel as an indicator of parent material differences and its correlation with fragipan development is not perfectly aligned, thus although most fragipans do exhibit a bisequal soil profile, the placement of the lithologic discontinuity is difficult given mass wasting, eluviation-illuviation, side slopes, and other soil processes that contribute to increasing the bulk density and conferring strength. Fragipan genesis is evolving;however, research involving Ecosystem Site Descriptions are a fusion of a land parcel’s soil properties, vegetational community, hydrology, and climate to guide land management. Ecological Site Descriptions associated with fragipan bearing soils are necessary, especially when making land management decisions.

Estimating global land surface broadband thermal-infrared emissivityusing advanced very high resolution radiometer optical data

An algorithm for retrieving global eight-day 5 km broadband emissivity (BBE)from advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) visible and nearinfrared data from 1981 through 1999 was presented. Land surface was dividedinto three types according to its normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)values: bare soil, vegetated area, and transition zone. For each type, BBE at813.5 mm was formulated as a nonlinear function of AVHRR reflectance forChannels 1 and 2. Given difficulties in validating coarse emissivity products withground measurements, the algorithm was cross-validated by comparing retrievedBBE with BBE derived through different methods. Retrieved BBE was initiallycompared with BBE derived from moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedos. Respective absolute bias and root-mean-square errorwere less than 0.003 and 0.014 for bare soil, less than 0.002 and 0.011 fortransition zones, and 0.002 and 0.005 for vegetated areas. Retrieved BBE wasalso compared with BBE obtained through the NDVI threshold method. Theproposed algorithm was better than the NDVI threshold method, particularly forbare soil. Finally, retrieved BBE and BBE derived from MODIS data wereconsistent, as were the two BBE values.