Experiment 2: soil-species relationships in a limestone grassland community

This experiment concerns relationships between the abundances of several plant species and associated soil characteristics in a limestone grassland community in Anglesey, North Wales. Previous work (Gittins, 1969) suggested that the factor-complexes of soil moisture and soil fertility are influential in determining the representation of many of the species present. Knowledge of the salient soil-species relationships provides a basis against which the ability of canonical analysis to recover such relationships can be assessed.