Heterogeneity of Soil Nutrients: A Review of Methodology, Variability and Impact Factors

Abstract

Soil nutrient heterogeneity highly correlates to plant growth and development of environmental quality. In order to better understand nutrient cycling, heterogeneity of soil nutrients and their driving mechanism in different land use types were summarized from 1945 to 2016. By grouping keywords indexed in the titles of articles from the data base of Web of Science, two hundred and thirty one publications related to our topics were used for analysis. Soil sampling and statistical method were compared, and spatial dependence and the impact factors for soil organic matter (SOM), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). The results showed - tial dependence of SOM, N and P were mainly at the moderate level (48.9-59.0%) and strong level (33.3-42.2%), while for K was at strong level (63.6-84.6%) and moderate level (15.4- - al, soil type, soil texture, land use, human activities, soil moisture, mineral element, soil strucfactors at different spatiotemporal scales was discussed. At the end of the review, the ideas for further research were postulated.