Nitrogen management in Western Australia (WA) and in cropping areas elsewhere in Australia assumes that soil contains negligible or no positive charge and is therefore unable to retain nitrate against leaching. The amount of water needed to displace nitrate is thus assumed to be the drainable volume of water held by the soil (1 pore volume), and in sandy soils about 100 mm drainage is assumed to be required to displace nitrate by 1 m. The clay mineralogy of the highly weathered soils of the WA wheatbelt is dominated by kaolinite and iron and aluminium oxides. This mineralogy suggests likely occurrence of positive charge and anion exchange capacity (AEC), since these minerals can carry positive charge under normal acidic field situations. We measured AEC of soils sampled widely across the WA wheatbelt by independent leaching and batch equilibration methods of charge measurement. This showed widespread occurrence of positive charge and AEC in these soils. AEC ranged from 0 to 2.47 mmolc/kg and is linearly correlated with the potassium chloride or monocalcium phosphate extractable sulfate content of the soil. This correlation provides a rapid screening method to identify soils with positive charge. Application of ion-chromatographic theory showed that AEC has a large effect in delaying nitrate leaching by up to 12.5 pore volumes. The most highly charged soil (2.47 mmolc/kg) thus needed 12.5 times more water to displace nitrate than currently assumed. This potentially large delay in nitrate leaching affects the optimum amount and time of fertiliser application, rates of soil acidification attributed to nitrate leaching and the benefit of ameliorating subsoils to allow roots access to subsoil water and leached nitrate. It also calls into question the use of anions such as bromide to trace water flow and estimate recharge in these soils.
The pH buffer capacity of a soil (pHBC) determines the amount of lime required to raise the pH of the soil layer from its initial acid condition to an optimal pH for plant growth and the time available under current net acid addition rate (NAAR) until the soil layer acidifies to a critical pH leading to likely production losses. Accurate values of pHBC can also be used to calculate NAAR from observed changes in soil pH. In spite of its importance, there is a critical shortage of pHBC data, likely due to the long period of time needed for its direct measurement. This work aimed to develop quick, simple and reliable methods of pHBC measurement and to test these methods against a slow (7-day) titration used as benchmark. The method developed here calculates pHBC directly from the pH buffer capacity of the buffer solution and the increase in soil pH and corresponding decrease in pH of the buffer solution following mixing and equilibration. The pHBC values calculated using Adams and Evans or modified Woodruff buffers were in accord with those measured by slow titration. Buffer methods are easily deployed in commercial and research laboratories as well as in the field. The advantage of using buffer solutions to calculate pHBC instead of lime requirement is the broad application of this soil property. The pHBC of a soil is an intrinsic property that would not be expected to need remeasurement over periods of less than decades. Recurring lime requirement can be calculated from the soil's pHBC, initial and target pH values. A large proportion of the variability in pHBC was explained by the soil organic carbon content. This relationship between pHBC and soil organic carbon content allowed us to develop local pedotransfer functions to estimate pHBC for different regions of Australia.
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