Soil Quality Assessment and Management in Karst Rocky Desertification Ecosystem of Southwest China

Karst rocky desertification is a common phenomenon in terrestrial ecosystems, and the deterioration of soil quality has a serious side effect on the aboveground vegetation and underground environmental factors. To clarify the variety of soil quality in different rocky desertification grades in typical karst areas of southwest China, the soil quality of four rocky desertification grades was calculated by a single model (SQI: soil quality index), two screening processes (TDS: total dataset and MDS: minimum dataset) and three scoring methods (SSF: standard scoring function, SL: linear scoring function and SNL: nonlinear scoring function). The key results are as follows: Significant differences were found in the soil environment factors in non-rocky desertification (NRD), light rocky desertification (LRD) and moderate rocky desertification (MRD) as compared to intense rocky desertification (IRD) (p < 0.01). Except for total potassium (TK), manganese (Mn) and amylase, the other soil environmental factors showed U-shaped changes. In contrast, TK, Mn and amylase increased first and then decreased. Additionally, the SQI based on MDS in SSF, SL and SNL was IRD (0.58) > NRD (0.48) > LRD (0.45) > MRD (0.43), IRD (0.53) > NRD (0.42) > LRD (0.39) > MRD (0.36) and IRD (0.57) > NRD (0.47) > MRD (0.42) > LRD (0.40), respectively. However, the SQI was always in the trend of IRD > NRD > MRD > LRD based on the TDS. Overall, although the soil area is scarce, the edaphic properties, enzyme activities and soil quality are not poor in the IRD. Furthermore, we found that SNL was more suitable for the evaluation of soil quality in the karst rocky desertification area (R² = 0.63, p < 0.001 and the coefficient of variation = 30.69%). This research helps to clarify the variation in soil properties and quality during the succession of rocky desertification and provides guidelines for the sustainable management of soil quality in areas of southwest China.