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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (36): 100-107.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2025-0576

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Influence of Climatic Factors on Soil Salinity Changes in Moderately and Severely Saline Coastal Soil Under Bare Land and Straw Mulching Conditions

ZHANG Jiao1(), FENG Chun2   

  1. 1 Jiangsu Yanjiang Institute of Agricultural Sciences/Nantong City Salt-tolerant Plant Public Technology Service Platform, Nantong, Jiangsu 226012
    2 Rudong Meteorological Observatory, Nantong, Jiangsu 226400
  • Received:2025-08-26 Revised:2025-10-21 Online:2025-12-25 Published:2025-12-25

Abstract:

The aims of this study are to analyze the dynamic changes of soil salinity in different salt levels of the coastal tidal flats, to explore the influence of climatic factors on the dynamic changes of salinity, and to reveal the natural evolution law of soil salinity in coastal saline soil, and provided a basis for desalination and improvement of coastal saline soil in Jiangsu Province. Through field investigations, two plots with significant differences in surface soil salinity (moderate saline soil 5.52 g/kg and severe saline soil 15.31 g/kg) were selected, and two treatments were set: bare land and straw cover. The effects of three climatic factors (rainfall, evaporation and temperature) on soil salinity changes were studied. Under straw cover, the changes in soil salinity were mainly affected by rainfall, and the influence of evaporation could be ignored, thus transforming the multi-factor analysis into a single-factor analysis. The bare land treatment was simultaneously affected by multiple factors such as rainfall, evaporation, etc. The results showed that: (1) under the combined influence of climatic factors, the salt content in the 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm layers of moderately and severely saline bare soil showed similar seasonal variation characteristics. During the rainy season from June to August, the salt contents decreased due to rain leaching, and from September to December, they showed significant accumulation characteristics. (2) Under the condition of straw cover, the soil salt content decreases exponentially with the increase of cumulative rainfall. The regression equations of exponential function for the 0-20 cm soil layer of moderately and severely saline soil were $y=2.3312{e}^{-0.003{x}_{1}}$ (R2=0.8232, P<0.01) and $y=4.8782{e}^{-0.003{x}_{1}}$ (R2=0.8207, P<0.01), respectively, with a reduction of 0.257 and 0.180 g/kg soil salt per 10 mm cumulative rainfall, respectively. (3) Under the bare soil condition, the changes in soil salt content of moderately and severely saline soil could be fitted by a linear regression equation of the first order and second degree with the cumulative rainfall and cumulative evaporation. At the same time, under the bare soil condition, the salt Sgw accumulated by groundwater due to capillary water rising could be estimated by the formula Sgw=St+1-St+S1r. Correlation and regression analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between mean temperature (x32) and Sgw. Therefore, it was concluded that rainfall played a dominant role in desalination of coastal saline soil, while temperature and evaporation played a major role in the accumulation of surface soil salt. In the desalination and improvement project of coastal saline soil, the leaching effect of rainwater should be exerted to prevent the accumulation effect of temperature and evaporation.

Key words: coastal saline soil, climate factor, soil salt content, rainfall, evaporation