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Distribution normality of pH and H+ activity in soil

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science Program, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO 65102, USA

    John Yang

  2. Department of Statistics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

    Jianguo Sun

  3. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

    David Hammer

  4. Environmental Soil Science Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

    John Yang & Robert Blanchar

Authors
  1. John Yang
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  2. Jianguo Sun
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  3. David Hammer
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  4. Robert Blanchar
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Correspondence to John Yang.

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Yang, J., Sun, J., Hammer, D. et al. Distribution normality of pH and H+ activity in soil. Environ Chem Lett 2, 159–162 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-004-0061-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-004-0061-z

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