Understanding the effects of environmental factors on the profile distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) is a base to accurately modeling the continuous change of SOC in vertical and three-dimensional spatial distributions, as well as precisely estimating SOC storage. Based on 171 soil profiles collected from Chengdu Plain, the effects of environmental factors (including the parent material, soil type, elevation, distance from river, and land use) on the profile distribution of paddy SOC to a depth of 1 m were evaluated through the exponential decay function. The results indicated that SOC was estimated at 19.42, 9.59, 5.99, and 5.20 g·kg-1 at depths of 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, and 60-100cm, respectively, showing a significant decrease with increased depth. Soil organic carbon was mainly concentrated above a 40 cm soil depth, accounting for 72.17% of the total profile, which could be crucial to studying the carbon source/sink of paddy soils in Chengdu Plain. The parameters of the exponential decay function had a similar spatial pattern, indicating their spatial dependence. The nugget coefficients for C and k were 55.400% and 47.671%, respectively, indicating that paddy SOC in the study area was affected by both structural and random factors. Regression analysis implied that the parent material and soil genius were the dominant factors influencing the profile distribution of SOC. Nevertheless, elevation, distance from river, and land use should also be taken into consideration. It has been concluded that the parent material and soil genius should be premeditated when fitting the vertical distribution of SOC, modeling the three-dimensional prediction of soil organic carbon, and estimating soil carbon storage in the paddy soils of Chengdu Plain.
Keywords: Chengdu Plain; exponential decay function; influencing factors; profile; soil organic carbon.