IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i9p1013-d1650893.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Influencing the Spatial Distribution of Soil Total Phosphorus Based on Structural Equation Modeling

Author

Listed:
  • Yameng Jiang

    (Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Watershed Agricultural Resources and Ecology (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China)

  • Jun Huang

    (Basic Geological Survey Institute of Jiangxi Geological Survey and Exploration Institute (Jiangxi Nonferrous Geological Mineral Exploration and Development Institute), Nanchang 330045, China)

  • Xi Guo

    (Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Watershed Agricultural Resources and Ecology (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China)

  • Yingcong Ye

    (Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Watershed Agricultural Resources and Ecology (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China)

  • Jia Liu

    (Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Watershed Agricultural Resources and Ecology (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China)

  • Yefeng Jiang

    (Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Watershed Agricultural Resources and Ecology (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China)

Abstract

Soil total phosphorus plays an important role in soil fertility, plant growth, and bioge-ochemical cycles. This study aims to determine the spatial distribution characteristics of soil total phosphorus and identify its main influencing factors in the study area, thereby providing a basis for the scientific management of soil total phosphorus. Here, we conducted a comprehensive analysis by combining classical statistical analysis, ge-ostatistics methods, Pearson correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the spatial distribution patterns of soil total phosphorus and its influencing factors. The results showed that soil total phosphorus in the study area ranged from 161.00 to 991.00 mg/kg, with an average of 495.71 mg/kg. Spatially, soil total phosphorus exhibited a patchy distribu-tion pattern, with high values primarily concentrated in cultivated areas along rivers and low values mainly located in forested areas in the southeastern and central re-gions. Additionally, the nugget effect of soil total phosphorus was 71.5%, indicating a moderate level of spatial variability. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed that soil total phosphorus content was significantly correlated with multiple factors, including land use types, soil parent material, distance from settlements, slope, and soil pH. Based on these findings, we employed ANOVA to analyze the impacts of various fac-tors. The results indicated that soil total phosphorus content showed significant differences under the influence of different factors. Subsequently, we further explored in depth the action paths through which these factors affect soil total phosphorus us-ing SEM. The SEM results showed that the absolute values of the total effects of the influencing factors on soil total phosphorus, ranked from highest to lowest, were as follows: land use types (0.499) > soil parent material (0.240) > distance from settle-ments (0.178) > slope (0.161) > elevation (0.127) > soil pH (0.114) > normalized differ-ence vegetation index (0.103). These findings provide a scientific foundation for the effective management of soil total phosphorus in similar study areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Yameng Jiang & Jun Huang & Xi Guo & Yingcong Ye & Jia Liu & Yefeng Jiang, 2025. "Factors Influencing the Spatial Distribution of Soil Total Phosphorus Based on Structural Equation Modeling," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:1013-:d:1650893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/1013/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/1013/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hua Wang & Yuxin Zhu & Jinghao Wang & Hubiao Han & Jiqiang Niu & Xueye Chen, 2022. "Modeling of spatial pattern and influencing factors of cultivated land quality in Henan Province based on spatial big data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Yang Li & Zhong Baorong & Xu Xiaohong & Liang Zijun, 2022. "Application of a semivariogram based on a deep neural network to Ordinary Kriging interpolation of elevation data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Rumi Wang & Runyan Zou & Jianmei Liu & Luo Liu & Yueming Hu, 2021. "Spatial Distribution of Soil Nutrients in Farmland in a Hilly Region of the Pearl River Delta in China Based on Geostatistics and the Inverse Distance Weighting Method," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Pham Thi Phuong Thuy & Nguyen My Hoa & Warren A. Dick, 2020. "Reducing Phosphorus Fertilizer Input in High Phosphorus Soils for Sustainable Agriculture in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-11, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zunfang Liu & Haochuan Lei & Lei Lei & Haiyan Sheng, 2022. "Spatial Prediction of Total Nitrogen in Soil Surface Layer Based on Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Pavel Krasilnikov & Miguel Angel Taboada & Amanullah, 2022. "Fertilizer Use, Soil Health and Agricultural Sustainability," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-5, March.
    3. Ziwei Liu & Mingchang Wang & Xingnan Liu & Fengyan Wang & Xiaoyan Li & Jianguo Wang & Guanglei Hou & Shijun Zhao, 2023. "Ecological Security Assessment and Warning of Cultivated Land Quality in the Black Soil Region of Northeast China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Baoshu Wu & Meifang Liu & Yufei Wan & Zhenjiang Song, 2023. "Evolution and Coordination of Cultivated Land Multifunctionality in Poyang Lake Ecological Economic Zone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Wenhui Zhang & Liangwei Cheng & Ruitao Xu & Xiaohua He & Weihan Mo & Jianbo Xu, 2023. "Assessing Spatial Variation and Driving Factors of Available Phosphorus in a Hilly Area (Gaozhou, South China) Using Modeling Approaches and Digital Soil Mapping," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    6. Bhawna Negi & Kavita Khatri & Surendra Singh Bargali & Kiran Bargali, 2023. "Invasive Ageratina adenophora (Asteraceae) in Agroecosystems of Kumaun Himalaya, India: A Threat to Plant Diversity and Sustainable Crop Yield," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Qiang Liao & Chunyan Chen & Zhengyu Lin & Yuanli Liu & Jie Cao & Zhouling Shao & Yaowen Kou, 2025. "Multifunctional Analysis of Agriculture from the Perspective of Tradeoff/Synergy: A Case Study of Sichuan Province in Western China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-21, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:1013-:d:1650893. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.