Spatial variation of soil properties impacted by aquaculture effluent in a small-scale mangrove

Small-scale mangroves serve ecological functions similar to large-scale mangroves regarding biological conservation, environmental purification, and supporting biogeochemical processes. The rising aquaculture neighboring mangroves results in their serving as an important sink for massive nutrients and pollutants from aquaculture effluent. We assessed how long-term aquaculture effluent discharge influenced the soil properties of a mangrove-tidal flat continuum using field survey and geostatistics. Common soil physical-chemical properties presented significant spatial variability. Continued aquaculture effluent discharge caused a significant cumulation of soil total organic carbon (SOC) (64.13 g·kg^-1), total nitrogen (TN) (2.44 g·kg^-1) and total phosphorus (TP) (1.12 g·kg^-1) in the mangrove soil, which were as 2-3 times as those on the mudflat. Most of the soil properties changed significantly with increasing distance from the effluent outlet along a tidal channel, and the maximum concentrations of SOC, TN and TP all occurred at 50 m away from the outlet. The results of principal component analysis indicated that aquaculture effluent significantly affected the spatial pattern of soil properties along the mangrove-tidal flat continuum. Continued aquaculture effluent input rendered extensive accumulation of SOC, TN and TP in the mangroves. The spatial heterogeneity of mangrove is the key driver to process the nutrient input spatially differently.