The Correlation Analysis on the Soil Total Nitrogen Content of Lateritic Red Soil and Terrain Characteristics in Guangdong Province Based on DEM

DEM of lateritic red soil in Guangdong Province was set up by using ArcGIS 9.2 based on soil type map,topographic map,and total nitrogen map data.Altitude,slope,aspect and undulating terrain were extracted to explore the correlation in large-scale between topographic factors and total nitrogen content of lateritic red soil in Guangdong Province.The results show that total nitrogen content of lateritic red soil had high correlation with the distribution area of the indices of height,slope and relief amplitude.The distribution area of total nitrogen content in soil was decreased as those terrain indices increased.As for aspect,the distribution area of soil total nitrogen content was mainly in flat region and south-east slope.