Abstract：
This paper highlights the critical role of pH or proton activity measurements in environmental studies and emphasises the importance of applying proper statistical approaches when handling pH data. This allows for more informed decisions to effectively manage environmental data such as from mining influenced water. Both the pH and {H+} of the same system display different distributions, with pH mostly displaying a normal or bimodal distribution and {H+} showing a lognormal distribution. It is therefore a challenge of whether to use pH or {H+} to compute the mean or measures of central tendency for further environmental statistical analyses. In this study, different statistical techniques were applied to understand the distribution of pH and {H+} from four different mine sites, Metsämonttu in Finland, Felsendome Rabenstein in Germany, Eastrand and Westrand mine water treatment plants in South Africa. Based on the statistical results, the geometric mean can be used to calculate the average of pH if the distribution is unimodal. For a multimodal pH data distribution, peak identifying methods can be applied to extract the mean for each data population and use them for further statistical analyses.
摘要：
本文强调了pH或质子活性测量在环境研究中的关键作用，并强调了在处理pH数据时应用适当统计方法的重要性。这允许做出更明智的决策，以有效地管理环境数据，例如采矿受影响的水。同一系统的pH和{H+}显示出不同的分布,pH值主要显示正常或双峰分布，{H}显示对数正态分布。因此,是否使用pH或{H+}来计算用于进一步环境统计分析的集中趋势的平均值或测量是一个挑战。在这项研究中,应用不同的统计技术来了解来自四个不同矿区的pH和{H+}的分布，Metsämonttu在芬兰，FelsendomeRabenstein在德国,南非的Eastrand和Westrand矿山水处理厂。根据统计结果,如果分布是单峰的，则几何平均值可用于计算pH的平均值。对于多峰pH数据分布，峰识别方法可用于提取每个数据群体的平均值，并将其用于进一步的统计分析。
