Soil plays a crucial role in ecosystem functioning, e.g., soil minerals provide important provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. The determination of soil mineral composition can help to link geochemical processes to underlying bedrock and surficial geology, however analysing quantitative soil mineralogy by X-ray diffraction can be expensive. This study used data from the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project sampled at sites (n = 560) across Canada; exploratory analysis of major elements from the C-horizon, < 2 mm size fraction, was carried out to determine whether geochemical data can infer site-specific qualitative soil minerals. Results for the raw geochemical data indicated relative variability of major elements across Canadian provinces with noticeable differences for silica and calcium. Geochemical data are compositional, and as such their statistical assessment is subject to the problem of closure. In the current study, all raw geochemical data were centred log-ratio-transformed prior to statistical analysis to overcome closure. Graphical measures indicated skewed element data prior to centred log-ratio transformation, which produced a more symmetric distribution. Correlations between elements suggested tentative soil mineral composition, such as silica and aluminum from aluminosilicates minerals. Principal component analysis of transformed geochemical data revealed three distinct groups of calcium, magnesium; iron, titanium, manganese; and aluminum, potassium, silica, sodium, while phosphorus had smaller relative variability independent of these groups. The interpretation of these groups was based on soil minerals and identified as carbonates, silicates, and weathered secondary oxides. These minerals corresponded geospatially to the regional bedrock geology of the sites across Canada, such as the sedimentary rock types from Western Canada to more variable minerals from igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary rocks in Eastern Canada.

土壤在生态系统功能中起着至关重要的作用，例如，土壤矿物质提供了重要的供给和调节生态系统服务。确定土壤矿物成分可以帮助将地球化学过程与下层基岩和表层地质联系起来，但是通过X射线衍射分析定量的土壤矿物学可能很昂贵。这项研究使用了来自北美土壤地球化学景观项目的数据，这些数据是在站点（n = 560）；对C视域中小于2 mm尺寸部分的主要元素进行了探索性分析，以确定地球化学数据是否可以推断出特定地点的定性土壤矿物。原始地球化学数据的结果表明，加拿大各省主要元素的相对变异性，二氧化硅和钙的差异明显。地球化学数据是组成性数据，因此其统计评估存在封闭问题。在当前研究中，所有原始地球化学数据在进行统计分析之前都经过对数比转换后居中，以克服封闭作用。图形测量表明对数比值居中变换之前的元素数据偏斜，从而产生了更对称的分布。元素之间的相关性表明土壤中的矿物质成分暂定 如铝硅酸盐矿物中的二氧化硅和铝。转换后的地球化学数据的主成分分析表明，钙，镁分为三个不同的组。铁，钛，锰 铝，钾，二氧化硅，钠和磷的相对变异性较小，而与这些基团无关。这些组的解释是基于土壤矿物，并被确定为碳酸盐，硅酸盐和风化的次生氧化物。这些矿物在地理空间上与加拿大各地的区域基岩地质相对应，例如加拿大西部的沉积岩类型与加拿大东部火成岩，变质岩或沉积岩中更多的可变矿物。铁，钛，锰 铝，钾，二氧化硅，钠和磷的相对变异性较小，而与这些基团无关。这些组的解释是基于土壤矿物，并被确定为碳酸盐，硅酸盐和风化的次生氧化物。这些矿物在地理空间上与加拿大各地的区域基岩地质相对应，例如加拿大西部的沉积岩类型与加拿大东部火成岩，变质岩或沉积岩中更多的可变矿物。铁，钛，锰 铝，钾，二氧化硅，钠和磷的相对变异性较小，而与这些基团无关。这些组的解释是基于土壤矿物，并被确定为碳酸盐，硅酸盐和风化的次生氧化物。这些矿物在地理空间上与加拿大各地的区域基岩地质相对应，例如加拿大西部的沉积岩类型与加拿大东部火成岩，变质岩或沉积岩中更多的可变矿物。