Prediction of properties of soil humic substances from FTIR spectra using partial least squares regression

Humic substances (HS) play a key role in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems . The understanding of the ecological functionalities of HS is based on the analysis of their properties, which is normally a very time-consuming proc edure. Therefore we tested the possibility to apply the partial least squar es regression (PLSR) method in connection with the mid infrared Fourier tra nsform (FTIR) spectra of a series of soil humic substances for the predicti on of different HS properties. The results with humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) fractions of soil HS from different environments show the possibi lity to predict several properties of an unknown soil HA with satisfying re liability above all the elemental composition.