ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1603159
Potential of Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) for Monitoring Long-term Dynamics of Soil Salinity in Central Asia and the Xinjiang Region, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China
- 2Xinjiang Institute of Technology, Aksu, Xinjiang, China
- 3Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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The regions of Central Asia and Xinjiang in China have long been plagued by soil salinization, posing a significant challenge to ecological health and agricultural security in the area, leading to soil compaction, low crop yields, and water scarcity. Solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) technology, due to its ability to reflect the photosynthetic status of plants and sensitivity to environmental changes, is considered an essential tool for vegetation monitoring. SIF excels in soil salinization monitoring by capturing plant responses to salt stress, offering early warnings. Additionally, SIF reduces interference from atmospheric and soil background signals, thereby enhancing monitoring accuracy. These characteristics make SIF a powerful tool for assessing soil health and productivity. However, the potential of SIF in the salinization fields of Central Asia and Xinjiang, China, has not yet been fully exploited. This study integrates SIFI indices and soil salinity data to construct a region-specific prediction model, in which soil salinity is classified into five levels using a random forest algorithm. The results indicate: (1) SIF effectively monitors salinization in Central Asia and Xinjiang, with strong sensitivity in Kazakhstan and Xinjiang. (2) April is the most responsive month, with SIFI1 being the key indicator. (3) The random forest model achieves over 80% accuracy in typical regions and 70% in others. (4) From 2000-2020, Kazakhstan had the largest salt-affected area, followed by Turkmenistan and Xinjiang. (5) Tajikistan showed large fluctuations, while Xinjiang remained stable Most areas showed rising salinity and expanding saline lands.
Keywords: ：Soil salt, Solar-induced fluorescence, Coarse-resolution Solar-Induced Fluorescence, World Soil Information Service, Remoting sensing
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Ding, Wang, Tan, Han and Li. 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: Jianli Ding, Xinjiang Institute of Technology, Aksu, Xinjiang, China
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