Analyzing Driving Factors of Soil Alkalinization Based on Geodetector—A Case in Northeast China

Abstract

The Songnen Plain of Northeast China is one of the three largest soda saline–alkaline regions in the world. To better understand soil alkalinization in this important agricultural region of China, it is vital to explore the driving factors of soil alkalinity. Combined with prior research on the Wuyu’er–Shuangyang River Basin, this study examined the driving factors of soil alkalinity using the Geodetector method. First, the analysis results of the risk detector, the factor detector, and the ecological detector revealed the primary driving factors of soil alkalinity in the study area. Next, the analysis results of the interaction detector determined how combinations of driving factors impacted soil alkalinity in the study area. In general, the natural driving factors of altitude and spring temperature, especially altitude, played a key role in soil alkalinization. These results indicated that the closed terrain and warming trends were the main causes of soil alkalinization in the study area. In addition, there were significant enhance-nonlinear and enhance-bivariate relationships among the driving factors, which indicated that combined driving factors contributed more to soil alkalinization than individual driving factors.