Distribution normality of pH and H⁺ activity in soil

Authors: Yang, John¹; Sun, Jianguo²; Hammer, David³; Blanchar, Robert⁴

Source: Environmental Chemistry Letters, Volume 2, Number 3, December 2004 , pp. 159-162(4)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Soil pH, a log-transformed form of hydrogen ion (H⁺) activity, is often used for various statistics. However whether soil pH meets the requirement of distribution normality for statistical analyses is unknown. We studied the statistical suitability of both soil pH and H⁺ activity by examining their distribution normalities. Results show that the variability of H⁺ activity is higher and its distribution is skewer, which is significantly different from the normal and soil pH, regardless of soil conditions and analytical methods. Here we demonstrate that soil pH is more appropriate than the H⁺ activity for performing statistical analysis in terms of distribution normality.

Keywords: Soil pH; Hydrogen ion activity; Distribution normality; Statistical analyses

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10311-004-0061-z

Affiliations: 1: Environmental Science Program, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO 65102, USA, Email: yangj@lincolnu.edu 2: Department of Statistics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA, 3: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA, 4: Environmental Soil Science Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA,

Publication date: 2004-12-01