Effects of Different Profile Configurations on Soil Physical and Chemical Properties and Particle Fractal Dimension

Abstract

Abstract An experimental area of different profile configurations was established in Meixian County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province. In the experiment, loamy loess was selected as cultivable layer and two types of soil thickness of 40cm (plot1, plot3, plot5) and 60cm (plot2, plot4, plot6) were designed, in which the transition layer of plot1 and plot2 were fine sand, the transition layer of plot3 and plot4 were loamy loess, and the transition layer of plot5 and plot6 were clay. Results showed that the soil particles were mainly composed of silt loam and silt. Soil particles were basically distributed in the range of 2 ~ 50µm. The fractal dimension D of soil volume in each treatment was in the range of 2.229 ~ 2.484, and there was a significant positive correlation between soil clay particle and soil silt particle content (P < 0.01). Fractal dimension D of soil volume in the experimental area was significantly positively correlated with soil organic matter, total nitrogen and silt particle content (P < 0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with soil gravel particle content (P < 0.05); Therefore, it can be concluded that the soil texture can be better improved when the covering type is loamy loess, the soil thickness is 40cm and the transition layer is fine sand.