ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Quantitative Research on the Relationship
between Salinity and Crack Length of Soda
Saline-Alkali Soil
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1
Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Monitoring of Geographical Environment,
Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China
2
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China
Submission date: 2017-11-07
Final revision date: 2018-02-07
Acceptance date: 2018-02-12
Online publication date: 2018-10-02
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Corresponding author
Jianhua Ren
Harbin Normal University, No.1 Normal University Road 1, Limin Economic Development Zone, Harbin, 150025 Harbin, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(2):823-832
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ABSTRACT
The Songnen Plain in China has a typical type of soda saline-alkali soil that frequently shrinks
and cracks under natural conditions, especially during water evaporation. This study aims to study
the effects of salt contents on the cracking process of soda saline-alkali soils and to make a quantitative
analysis between crack length and some primary salt parameters of soda saline-alkali soils. To achieve
the objectives, 57 soil samples with different salinity levels were selected and a laboratory-controlled
desiccation cracking test was then conducted. Next, correlation analysis was carried out between extracted
crack lengths and salt parameters of all the specimens. The results showed that there are clear linear
dependencies between crack length and salinity, Na+, Cl-, and electrical conductivity (EC), and that CO32-
is also quite linear with crack length. The fitting results conducted from the verification experiment
showed that Na+ content, Cl- content, EC, and total salinity showed high prediction performance (R2>0.91
and RPD>2.5); that the CO32- content had quite reasonable accuracy (R2 = 0.78 and RPD = 1.82) but with
less stability and poor reliability; that the prediction accuracy for pH, however, was very poor, with R2 and
RPD only 0.42 and 1.06, respectively.