ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1673993
This article is part of the Research TopicEcosystem Services and Sustainable Restoration Interlinking Soil, Geological, and Vegetation Interactions for Sustainable DevelopmentView all 11 articles
Spatial Variability Characteristics of Soil physicochemical properties in Fixed-axis and Tracking Tilted Single-axis Photovoltaic panels in Qinghai Desert areas
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qinghai University, Xining, China
- 2Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, China
- 3Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, China
- 4Qinghai Huanghe Hydropower Development Co.,LTD, Xining,China, Xining, China
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To clarify the influence of photovoltaic (PV) panels on the spatial distribution characteristics of soil properties in desert areas, the soil of fixed-axis (FIX) PV panels and tracking tilted single-axis (TTS) PV panels in the Gonghe large-scale PV power plant in the Qinghai desert was taken as the research object. The PV panels were divided into the south edge, the north edge, under and between panels. The soil in the undisturbed area outside the PV power plant was taken as the control area. The results showed that, except between the PV panels, the soil bulk density (BD) increased significantly at other locations of the TTS PV panels (p ＜ 0.001), soil organic carbon (SOC), total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), and available nitrogen (AN) decreased significantly (-35.07%, -29.62%, -38.25%, and -32.86% under the panels, respectively), and the total phosphorus (TP) content was significantly decreased only in the north edge and between the panels (p ＜ 0.01). Soil water content (SWC) of FIX PV panels increased significantly (+74.74% under the panels, p ＜ 0.001), and pH decreased. Comparing the two types of PV panels, except the north edge, SWC, SOC, TN, SOC: TP, TN: TP, and AN were significantly higher in the FIX PV panels than in the TTS PV panels, and BD, total potassium (TK), and SOC: TN were considerably lower than in the TTS PV panels. There was no significant difference(p ＞ 0.05) in soil quality and multifunctionality index in the PV panel area. The research results can provide theoretical support for soil restoration of PV power plants in desert grassland.
Keywords: Desert area, Large-scale PV power plant, soil properties, soil quality index, Multifunctionality index
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yue, Guo, Bo, Ye, Ma and Bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mengjing Guo, 13997074167@163.com
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