Impact of soil salinization on the eco-environment quality of coastal wetlands:A case study of Yellow River Delta

Soil salinization is an important reason for land degradation and desertification and has a huge impact on the eco-environment. Coastal wetlands are typical areas subjected to a weak eco-environment and severe salinization, and there is an urgent need to investigate the impact of soil salinization on their eco-environment. This study proposed the baseline-based soil salinity index (BSSI), which can effectively suppress the influence of complex features on surface salinization monitoring and improve the accuracy of saline soil extraction by 10% compared to other salinity index models. Furthermore, this study proposed the optimized water benefit-based ecological index (OWBEI) by optimizing the water benefit-based ecological index (WBEI), which can effectively increase the accuracy of eco-environment quality assessment to 87%. Finally, this study explored the mechanical processes of the influence of soil salinization on the eco-environment quality based on the distribution of soil salinization and eco-environment quality obtained from the Yellow River Delta. The results show that the deterioration of soil salinization has led to an increase in the soil vulnerability of coastal wetlands, indirectly resulting in a continuous decrease in eco-environment quality. Although eco-environment protection measures have been continuously proposed, few of them are tailored to the solving of salinization. This leads to the deterioration of the ecological quality, which then yields negative feedback to the soil and eventually forms a vicious circle. This adversely affects local production, life, and social development.