The distribution characteristics of halogen elements in soil under the impacts of geographical backgrounds and human disturbances

- We explore the spatial relationships between halogen elements in soil and human activities.
- The rules of different landscapes influencing halogen elements are diversified.
- A strong relationship between some element anomalies and human disturbances can be observed.
- Applying spatial information techniques to study chemical elements in soil is feasible.
- Remote sensing and geographic information techniques are effective in the analysis process.

Soil chemical elements are important parameters for soil origin diagnosis, and are sensitive indicators of human disturbance process. The present study attempts to evaluate the influence from human activities on halogen elements (fluoride and iodine). This study also attempts to seek a route to explore the spatial relationships between human disturbances and halogen elements according to geospatial theories and methods. Moreover, the spatial correlations between element anomalies and human disturbed landscapes are calculated to explore the influence from human activities on halogen elements, thereby determining the specific response mechanism. The study results indicate that landscapes influence halogen elements in diverse ways and that element iodine is closely related with road and mine landscapes. Furthermore, strong relationships exist between fluoride and road landscapes, which suggest that this element is affected by road landscapes significantly. Fluoride and iodine are unrelated with city landscapes, and fluoride is unrelated with mine landscapes. These provide a reference for the research on the interaction mechanism between halogen and environment. Therefore, it can be concluded that a response mechanism exploration of soil element aggregation and human disturbance is practicable according to geospatial theories and methods, which provides a new idea for studying the soil element migration.