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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (1): 56-68.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.201

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Fractal characteristics and driving factors of soil particle size in the surface layer of Xinjiang

LIU Quanyu1,2(), LIU Xinlu1,2, LI Guizhen1, LI Congjuan2()   

  1. 1 College of Grassland Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, Xinjiang, China
    2 State Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, National Engineering Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-04-13 Revised:2025-07-03 Online:2026-01-25 Published:2026-01-18
  • Contact: LI Congjuan E-mail:liuquanyu12345@126.com;licj@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Abstract:

Xinjiang, an ecologically fragile region in China that is prone to aeolian desertification, has a surface-soil particle composition that plays a critical role in regional ecosystem stability. This study analyzed the particle composition of surface soils collected from 180 sampling points across 60 plots in Xinjiang, China. Using the aridity index, sampling sites were classified into semi-arid, arid, and hyper-arid plots to examine the fractal characteristics of soil particle-size distributions across drought gradients and to assess how environmental factors influence these fractal properties in surface soils. The results demonstrated that (1) With increasing aridity, the surface-soil particle-size distribution became progressively coarser and showed clear transitional features. Semi-arid and arid plots were dominated by silt, whereas hyper-arid plots were dominated by sand, with very fine and fine sand together accounting for 53.48%. (2) Overall, the soils exhibited poor sorting. Particle dispersion decreased with increasing aridity, resulting in progressively narrower size distributions, and the fractal dimensions ranged from 1.98 to 2.47. (3) The fractal dimension was strongly influenced by clay content, showing positive correlations with clay and silt and a significant negative correlation with sand. Furthermore, the model-fitting performance of the fractal dimension in plots under different aridity gradients followed the order: hyper-arid>arid>semi-arid. (4) The factor detector results indicated that mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), soil type, and parent material had strong explanatory power for the soil fractal dimension. Structural equation modeling further showed that, among the continuous variables examined, climatic factors had a significant influence on the surface-soil fractal dimension in Xinjiang. Specifically, MAP and wind speed exerted positive effects, whereas MAT had a negative effect. This research provides a scientific basis for regional soil use and ecological management, supporting soil and water conservation, vegetation restoration, and ecosystem stability in Xinjiang.

Key words: fractal dimension, particle size distribution, soil texture, driving factors, Xinjiang