The spatial dependence of base saturation on forest soil grain and chemical composition seen through individual and typological divisions

Abstract

Soil base saturation is a physicochemical property used for classifying terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we focused on a comparison of soil base saturation and spatially related soil physical and chemical properties between individual and typological forest divisions. The dependence of soil base saturation on physical and other chemical properties was obtained through geographically weighted regression. Both soil properties and regression characteristics were divided along soil regions and associations. The similarities of soil properties between individual and typological soil division systems were assessed through quantiles from spatial models by two-tailed t-tests and simple linear regressions. Independent variables characterized 26−91% of soil base saturation variance, with mean geographically weighted determination coefficients (R2) between soil regions varying from 0.40 to 0.86, and between soil associations from 0.55 to 0.83. Low significant (p < 0.5) differences in distributions of soil base saturation predominated in both individual and typological systems. Only loam content, P2O5 and pH showed unique regional effects on soil base saturation.