# The Application of Computed Tomography to Study the Soil Porosity of Mountain Red Earth
## 4 Conclusions  
1. The study used CT scanning to non-destructively examine Mountain Red Earth columns. Analyses showed a linear decrease in pore area percentage with depth. Pore roundness fluctuated more, and the total pore count initially increased, then decreased. Micropores were most prevalent, while medium and large pores were fewer, with more large pores in the topsoil. The box-counting dimension effectively highlighted the heterogeneity and complexity of soil pores, decreasing linearly with depth.
2. In this study, it was found that the soil predominantly consisted of small pores, which generally indicate high aggregate stability. Stable aggregates are formed by the interaction of soil particles with organic matter and clay minerals. While small pores help maintain aggregate stability and enhance soil structure, an excessive amount can make the soil more prone to erosion. Additionally, soil porosity decreases with depth, leading to reduced structural stability, limited water infiltration, restricted root growth, and lower organic matter content, all of which increase erosion risks. Therefore, soil management must consider porosity changes and their impact on erosion.
3. The correlation analysis of quantified pore parameters indicates that as depth increases, there is no direct relationship between pore area percentage and roundness. However, the number of pores does affect roundness values. Both the number of pores and the ratio of pore area to box-counting dimension exhibit a clear linear positive correlation, with the linear influence of pore area on the box-counting dimension being particularly distinct. Meanwhile, there is a negative correlation between the box-counting dimension and roundness.
4. The 3D visualization reconstruction using Avizo effectively reconstructs the pore structure of Mountain Red Earth. The results indicate that pores are mainly concentrated in the upper soil column, distributed in an interconnected pattern with few isolated pores. The pore scale decreases significantly with depth, showing clear differences between the top and bottom surfaces, consistent with 2D slice observations.
5. CT scanning and 3D visualization successfully reconstructed the morphology of Mountain Red Earth from various perspectives. This demonstrates that CT non-destructive testing effectively observes and characterizes its pore structure qualitatively and quantitatively.  
[PERSON] was responsible for the review and editing of the manuscript, as well as providing software guidance. [PERSON] contributed to the writing of the original draft. [PERSON] and [PERSON] were responsible for conducting the experimental operations. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was financially supported by the Yunnan Natural Science Foundation Project (202401 AT070119).  
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Data Availability Statement: Data are contained within the article. The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.  
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.