Spatial variation in riparian soil properties and its response to environmental factors in typical reach of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River

Soil and vegetation are the foundation of maintaining riparian ecosystem services, and their spatial distribution and variations can determine the effects of ecological functions. In the present study, selecting the typical reach of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River as the study area, the spatial distributions of riparian soil physicochemical properties and their response to environmental factors were analyzed by employing methods of field investigation, experimental analysis, and redundancy analysis (RDA). The results showed that soil particle was composed significantly of silt in the study area, with the increase of riparian buffer distance, soil bulk density increased initially and then decreased, whereas soil moisture showed the opposite pattern. Changes in total soil phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP), total carbon (TC), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN); ammonium nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO₃⁻-N) contents under different riparian buffer distance showed