Abstract: In this paper,the conventional statistics and redundancy analysis were used to investigate the spatial distribution of total salt content (TS),pH value,electrical conductivity (EC),sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and ion composition of salty soil in the Manas River Basin,Xinjiang, China.Results are as follows:(1) The soil salt content varied in a range from 5.80 g·kg^-1 to 9.02 g·kg^-1, soil salt accumulation occurred in subsoil, slight or moderate salinization occurred in soil layer, that is the slight soil salinization occurred in topsoil (0-10 cm) and moderate one in subsoil (20-70 cm); (2) pH value, EC and SAR in whole soil profile varied in ranges of 8.2-8.4, 0.70-1.38 mS·cm^-1 and 0.25-0.64 respectively, so alkalization did not occur; (3) Ca²⁺and SO^2-₄, Na⁺ and SO^2-₄ were good relationships in whole soil layer; (4) SO^2-₄, Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ were the main factors affecting the spatial distribution of total soil salt content throughout soil profile.Although there was a slight variation of their contents, SO^2-₄ and Na⁺ were still the main factors; (5) The spatial distribution of EC in the whole soil profile was restricted by SO^2-₄ and Na⁺, except in soil layers where Na⁺ and Cl^- were the dominant factors; (6) Except the pH value in soil layer of 0-10 cm in depth was affected by HCO^-₃, the pH value in the whole profile was mainly affected by CO^2-₃; (7) The effect of environmental factors on SAR was slight, except SAR in soil layer of 50-70 cm in depth was affected by Cl^-, there were no the dominant factors for soil layer of 0-50 cm.

Key words: soil salinization, ion composition, redundancy analysis, oasis soil, Manas River Basin, Xinjiang