Assessment of the Catalase Activity of the Soil Profile by Methods of Multidimensional Statistics (on the Example of Drained Swamps of Western Siberia)

Slightly, moderately, and intensively drained peat soils (Histosols) occupied by pine (Pinus sylvetris L.) forests were studied. According to seasonal observations using discriminant, canonical analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis methods (tree clustering and the K-means method), catalase activity of soil profile was divided into two areas—0–10 and 10–30 cm. The surface zone is highly active, heterogeneous in reaction kinetics, in which the horizons 0–5 and 5–10 cm are grouped into three separate clusters depending on the depth of drainage. The lower zone, with relatively stable and reduced catalase activity, combined horizons of 10–20 and 20–30 cm of soils of different drainage levels into one cluster. The interdependent effect of environmental factors—soil temperature, soil bulk moisture, redox potential, and pH—on catalase activity was 98%. The greatest “weight” is brought by hydrothermal indices with a dominant contribution of soil bulk moisture.