Assessment of soil quality for agricultural purposes around the Barapukuria coal mining industrial area, Bangladesh: insights from chemical and multivariate statistical analysis

Environmental Systems Research

Table 2 Correlation matrix coefficient of 18 soil samples

Variables	pH	Total nitrogen	OM	K	P	S	Fe	As	Cu	Ni	Total alkalinity as CaCO₃
pH	1.0
Total Nitrogen	− 0.313	1.0
OM	− 0.496	0.631	1.0
K	0.001	0.441	0.42	1.0
P	0.21	0.124	0.351	0.436	1.0
S	0.136	0.278	0.037	0.213	0.431	1.0
Fe	0.018	0.047	− 0.086	− 0.034	0.002	− 0.016	1.0
As	− 0.178	− 0.052	− 0.116	− 0.342	− 0.438	0.124	− 0.236	1.0
Cu	− 0.1	− 0.215	0.043	− 0.108	− 0.192	− 0.363	− 0.182	0.142	1.0
Ni	0.146	0.126	− 0.04	0.449	0.018	0.112	0.147	− 0.09	0.120	1.0
Total Alkalinity(as CaCO₃)	0.969	− 0.347	− 0.552	− 0.02	0.214	0.13	− 0.059	− 0.202	− 0.081	0.192	1.0

Italic values indicate the significant correlation between the various chemical parameters