Modelling Soil Thickness Evolution:Advancements and Challenges
Global soil thickness is only about 1 m.Its spatial distribution is nevertheless crucial in many hydrological and ecological processes,and it also determines hillslope stability and channel initiation in geomorphological fields.Due to its significant spatial heterogeneity,it is difficult to obtain the soil thickness distribution on a catchment scale based on existing soil survey databases,geophysical investigations,or empirical models.Therefore,it is urgent to develop a process-based model for soil thickness prediction.In this study,methodologies and theories were comprehensively reviewed,and the applicability of different soil production and soil transport models were evaluated.This study pointed out that the mechanism of soil production by chemical weathering is still unclear and is a theoretical bottleneck restricting the development of soil thickness evolution models.Moreover,the methodology of the model still needs to be further developed,and it is urgent to develop and improve the parameter estimation methods and the adoption of equation forms for describing soil production and soil transport in such models upon applications.From our analysis,we inferred that a hybrid model combining stochastic and process-based models as well as mathematical physically-based methods for determining parameters may help solve many difficulties faced in model applications.Finally,we discussed the possible integration of soil thickness evolution models and soil pedogenesis models based on the theoretical frame of catchment coevolution for predicting soil thickness,texture,layering and organic carbon content variation in the landscape.
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
