Evaluation of soil quality index (SQI) in different land use of Malayer city using minimum data set (MDS) method
Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Department of Environmental Pollution, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Environmental Science Department Faculty of Natural Resources & Environment Malayer University
3 Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran.
Abstract
Considering the role and importance of soil quality assessment in economic success and environmental sustainability, this study was conducted to evaluate the soil quality index (SQI) in different land use of Malayer city. For this purpose, 36 samples from 6 land use were collected and 11 physical and chemical properties of soil were measured. Soil quality index was determined based on criteria. Using the principal component analysis (PCA) method among 11 physical and chemical parameters of soil, two parameters of CaCO3 and K with a total variance justification of 63.08% as the most important parameters to evaluate the soil quality index were introduced using the Minimum Data Set (MDS) method. Finally, soil quality in different land uses was determined and compared. The results showed that the park and green spaces land use has the highest soil quality index in Malayer city. But irrigated farming and industrial land uses had the lowest soil quality. Therefore, the need to manage and increase soil quality in these two land use in order to prevent excessive soil degradation and erosion is felt. In general, it can be concluded that soils of non-industrial areas and areas where the goal is not to produce maximum yield, such as parks and green spaces have higher soil quality. The reason for the higher quality of soil in garden use than irrigation- agricultural and industrial is the presence of perennial plants and deep roots of these plants. Considering that maintaining and increasing soil quality is one of the criteria for the sustainability of different ecosystems, the need to monitor this parameter in different land use and prone to damage in Malayer city is suggested.
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