2.3. Statistical analysis
Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to characterize the
relationships between the various vegetation and soil properties. Principal
component analysis (PCA) also was used to identify the main factors
controlling soil erosion and nutrient accumulations, and to reduce the
number of soil-vegetation variables. Only components with eigenvalues
greater than unity were selected to determine the main components.
Variables with absolute eigenvector coefficients ≥0.70 were selected
and considered significant in each component (Wotling et al., 2000).
Multivariate statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS software
package (Ver. 19.0).