Soil Characterisation Using Mahalanobis D² Statistics

Eighty surface samples belonging to eight soil series of Guntur area in Andhra Pradesh were analysed for seven soil characters, namely, silt, clay, calcium carbonate, organic carbon, pH and available phosphorus and potassium. The laboratory data were subjected to statistical analysis using Mahalanobis' generalised distance D² to examine differences among the soils with respect to these properties, to quantify these differences in numerical terms for preparing comparative indices, and to sort out discriminating and non discriminating characters. The analysis brought out locational as welt as soil parametric differences among soils and highlighted the relative importance of the various distinguishing characters. It was found that in some of the cases only one or two characters were sufficient to distinguish the soils while in several other situations, even four to five of the seven characters were ineffective.