Primary and conditional basic exchangeable cations in Australian soil profiles

Abstract

The examination of a range of soil profiles showed that both primary and conditional exchangeable calcium, magnesium and sodium are present in all the soils, but the proportions of these subsets vary widely. There are some general correlations with profile form, and it is likely that the partition of these exchangeable cations will prove useful in studying the properties and behaviour of soils. Potassium differs from the other three cations in its exchange reactions-it is present almost entirely in the conditional subset-and it requires an additional exchange reagent to partition it successfully.