Soil total nitrogen (TN) plays a major role in agriculture, geochemical cycles and terrestrial ecosystem functions. Knowledge regarding the TN distribution is crucial for the sustainable use of soil resources. This paper therefore aims to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution of soil TN and improve the current understanding of how various factors influence changes in TN. Natural characteristics and remote sensing (RS) variables were used in conjunction with the random forest (RF) model to map the TN distribution in a low hilly region of southeastern China in 1979, 2004 and 2014. The means and changes of TN in different geographic regions and farmland protection regions were also analyzed. The results showed that: (1) the TN showed an increasing trend in the early periods and exhibited a decreasing trend from 2004 to 2014; (2) the geographic and RS variables played more important roles in predicting TN distribution than did the other variables; and (3) changes in the fertilization and crop planting structure caused by soil testing and formulated fertilization techniques (STFFT-Soil Testing and Formulated Fertilization Techniques) as well as farmland protection policies influenced the spatiotemporal variability of TN. Evidently, more attention should be focused on improving the quality and soil fertility in the surrounding low mountainous areas.
Keywords: digital soil mapping; mountainous region; soil total nitrogen; spatiotemporal distribution.