Characteristics and regularity of spatial,horizontal and vertical,distribution of soil salinity in different salinity profile types were studied and summarized through application of hierarchical cluster analysis of typical soil salinity profiles in the Yellow River Delta,and these regularities were then used to explore spatial distribution of different salinity profile types.Results show that soil salinity profiles could be obviously classified into normal,inverted and even,and a soil profile of 180 cm in depth could be divided into four layers,0～20 cm,20～80 cm,80～120 cm and 120～180 cm in terms of the vertical distribution characteristics.Soil salinity exhibited strong variation in spatial distribution,both horizontal and vertical,salt accumulation at the surface soil layer was generally significant,and the regularity of soil salinity at different layers could serve as a reference for the classification of salinity profile types.Owing to compound impact of structural and stochastic factors,soil salinity at these layers all exhibited moderate spatial variation and identical spatial autocorrelation scale.The results of Kriging interpolation and spatial analysis indicated that the spatial distribution of soil salinity in surface layer was chiefly dominated by micro-topography and climate conditions,while the spatial distribution of soil salinity at deeper layers was mainly controlled by groundwater properties. The study area was predominated with inverted salinity profile types and,followed by normal and even ones,respectively.The distribution patterns of salinity profile types reflected variation of vegetation types and land use patterns to some extent,and human agricultural activity was the crucial reason for the formation of normal and even salinity profile types.The research results can serve as a theoretical and practical basis for zoning,amelioration,management and rational utilization of saline soils in the Yellow River Delta.