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Cation exchange capacity of ten non-calcareous and non-saline soils from Queensland, Australia, has been determined by the ammonium acetate method using different procedures, by an ammonium chloride method at pH8.5, and by three methods which attempt to approximate field conditions. Procedural differences in the ammonium acetate method produced variation in results, and methods using approximate field conditions gave much lower values for those soils considered to have variable charge properties.

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The subsoil of a xanthic ferralsol was used to determine the effect of varying ionic strength and pH on the cation exchange capacity and the amounts of Na, K, Ca, and Mg in exchangeable form.The cation exchange capacity increased with both pH and ionic strength from 2.6 meq/100 g at pH 2.5 and 0.01M ionic strength to 6.9 meq/100 g at pH 9.5 and 1.0M ionic strength.Sodium and K remained completely exchangeable over all the ionic strengths (0.01 to 1.0M) and pH range 2.5 to 9.5. By contrast Mg became fixed in nonexchangeable forms as the pH increased so that 62% of Mg originally exchangeable at pH 4.0 was fixed at pH 9.5 and 1.0M ionic strength. Calcium also appeared to become fixed in nonexchangeable form as the pH increased, but to a much lesser extent than Mg.

A unique dimensionless phosphate adsorption isotherm, covering the solution concentration range 10−6 to 10−1M P, which has been found to fit 17 materials including 15 soils, pure kaolinite and amorphous Al(OH)3, is derived. The soils shown to fit the isotherm include chromic luvisols, pellic vertisols, calcic luvisols, a tropeptic eutrorthox, a volcanic ash soil from New Zealand, and a number of English soils.The necessary parameters to derive, a complete adsorption isotherm for a particular soil, from the universal isotherm, requires three adsorption experiments in the high concentration range (10−4 to 10−1M P) to define the linear portion of the isotherm and the critical concentration. Three other determinations in the range 10−6 to 10−4M P are needed to obtain the Freundlich isotherm from the data after correction for the effect of the linear region of the isotherm at high concentration. The Freundlich constant a was shown to be a capacity factor, and the constant b to be related to the chemical potential of the phosphate in solution. For the soils studied the variation in the magnitude of b was found to be smaller (0.11 to 0.37) than in a (1.60 to 9.66).The advantage of this universal isotherm over conventional isotherms, is that it requires less experimental work to define and is applicable over a wide range of P concentrations such as might be found surrounding a fertilizer granule.