CANONICAL CORRELATION IN PEDOLOGY: HOW USEFUL?

Summary Canonical correlation is an analytical technique for relating one multivariate set of measurements on a population to another in terms of linear functions of the two sets. It can express quantitatively the relation between the soil, described by one set of variates, and its environment, described by another, and attempt statistical prediction of the one from a knowledge of the other. The method is described briefly, and applied to soil and environmental data from soil surveys in Britain (the Dee catchment of North Wales) and Australia (Ginninderra in the Australian Capital Territory and the Wungong Brook catchment near Perth, Western Australia). The technique is judged to be a useful exploratory tool for seeking relations in situations that are little known or understood.