[Assessment indicators of soil quality in hilly Loess plateau]

By the methods of sensitivity analysis, main component analsis and discriminant analysis, this paper screened the sensitive indicators from 32 soil attributes to assess the productivity and erosion-resistance ability of the soils in hilly Loess Plateau. The results showed that soil available phosphorus content, anti-scouring ability, infiltration coefficient, labile organic carbon content, organic matter content and urease activity were the most sensitive indicators for soil quality assessment and the main targets for soil quality management and improvement, while soil biological indicators were with high and medium sensitivity. Five soil quality factors were summed up from 29 soil chemical, physical and biological attributes, i. e., organic matter, texture, phosphorus, porosity and microstructure. Except the factor porosity, the other four factors were significantly different between different land use types. Eight indicators including soil organic matter content, infiltration coefficient, anti-scouring ability, CEC, invertase activity, mean weight diameter (MWD) of aggregates, available phosphorus, and MWD of microaggregate were identified as the assessment indicators of the soil quality in hilly Loess Plateau, with the organic matter content, infiltration coefficient and anti-scouring ability as the key indicators.