Investigation of linear correlations between soil indicators

Abstract

The soil is an important part of the world that contributes to ecosystem services such as food production, water purification, and protection from climate changes. Despite that, knowledge and understanding of the structure and functions of the soil system is deficient. The world faces challenges related to crop production and food consumption. These challenges are predicted to become even greater in the future. An increased understanding, will contribute to the work to assess the status of soils and preserve or regain the functions from soil. The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of how soil indicators can be used to describe soil and specifically to investigate the existence of linear correlations between soil indicators. The investigation includes calculation of biological soil indicators based on environmental DNA from The Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS). The calculated biological soil indicators are the ratio of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, diversity index and presence of actinomycetes bacteria, mycorrhiza forming fungi, and saprotrophic fungi. The data analysis includes regression analysis and principal component analysis between the biological soil indicators and characteristic soil indicators (see Table 4.5). The results indicate that there may be no linear correlations between the chosen biological soil indicators and the characteristic soil indicators.