The Building And Application Of Jinqu Basin Soil Series Database Of Zhejiang Province

Soil is the product of interaction among the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere of the Earth. Soil classification is a component of Soil science and there are two profound classification systems worldwide, namely the soil genetic classification and the soil taxonomy. With the growing demand for scientific management and rational use of land resources and the widespread adoption of Geographical Information System (GIS), the soil information system has emerged. As a fundamental part of the system, the soil database has gained more and more attention. The soil series, the basic classification unit of Chinese soil taxonomy, have the characteristics of classifying soils based on quantitative features and provide a direct connection between soil classification and agricultural production in practice. Therefore, the building of their database has become one of the most important tasks of the basic and applied research in contemporary domestic soil science.Jinqu basin is not only a major agricultural development area of Zhejiang Province but also a key production base of agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry products, which makes it more urgent to use the limited soil resources carefully and protect it in this area. Given that since the soil series survey has just been launched and the conditions are not yet ripe for building of the nationwide and provincial soil series database, it is very necessary to begin by building regional soil series database such as Jinqu basin, which should be regarded as an exploratory attempt in soil series research and application. The study is supported by the subproject, "Soil Series Survey in Zhejiang Province and Compilation of Soil Series in China:Volume Zhejiang", of the Special Program for Basic Research of National Science and Technology, "Soil Series Survey in China and compilation of Soil Series in China" (Grant No.2008FY110600) and aims at building the database of basic categories of soil classification by carrying out the soil series survey in Jinqu basin of Zhejiang Province.Based on the soil series database which takes Baishuifan, Duze Town, Qujiang District, Quzhou City for sample area, the fertility of soil series is evaluated by choosing nine indicators, viz. topography type, slope, topsoil thickness, topsoil texture, pH value, cation exchange capacity, soil organic matter, phosphorus and potassium. The results are consistent with local actual conditions, which prove the advantage of the application of soil series database to agricultural practice.