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  • Jul. 10, 2025

Arid Land Geography ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (4): 649-660.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2024.242

• Ecology and Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatio-temporal analysis of multi-layered soil moisture deficit and its influencing factors in the oases at the eastern foothill of Helan Mountains

HOU Ying1(), LIU Wenhui1, CHU Yang2, MA Xiaojuan1, YAO Shiyu3, NI Tongxin1   

  1. 1. College of Geography Science and Planning, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, Ningxia, China
    2. Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    3. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
  • Received:2024-04-16 Revised:2024-10-21 Online:2025-04-25 Published:2025-04-18

Abstract:

In the oases at the eastern foothill of Helan Mountains, Ningxia, China, known as the “Jiangnan on the Frontier”, soil moisture is a critical limiting factor affecting ecological preservation and high-quality socio-economic development. Based on soil moisture data from ten layers (0-100 cm), multidimensional analyses were conducted on the spatiotemporal distribution, evolution characteristics, and influencing factors of soil moisture deficit in this region using methods such as spatiotemporal trend analysis and partial regression analysis. This approach enhances the understanding of the correlation and interactive effects of soil moisture changes at different depths. The results indicated that the degree of soil moisture deficit in various layers had intensified over the past 20 years. As soil depth increased, soil moisture in the northern and southern oases exhibited distinct multidimensional spatial distribution patterns: deficit-surplus-deficit-surplus-deficit and deficit-surplus-deficit, respectively. Additionally, they followed spatiotemporal evolution trends of wetting-drying-wetting and wetting-drying. The influences of precipitation (PRE) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) on soil moisture across different layers gradually weakened, while the influence of temperature (TMP) first strengthened and then weakened, and the influence of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) gradually increased. In summary, soil moisture at different depths and its influencing factors exhibited regular and multidimensional spatiotemporal variation patterns. The 0-10 cm layer was strongly positively influenced by PRE, whereas the 10-30 cm and 30-100 cm layers were significantly negatively affected by TMP and NDVI, respectively.

Key words: standardized soil moisture index, soil moisture deficit, spatio-temporal variability, multidimensional structure, oases at the eastern foothill of Helan Mountains