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The influence of pH (3.0-8.0), ionic strength (0.005-0.10 M), and concentration (ca. 50-300 mg L-I) on the viscosimetric behaviour of solutions of a soil fulvic acid has been determined. The results show a complex influence of the concentration on the specific viscosity with maxima at about 80-100 mg L-' and a minimum at 140-160 mg L-I. The viscosity is minimum at pH ca. 6 and decreases when the ionic strength increases. The results are interpreted by a rod-type model from which the dimensions of fulvic acid molecules are calculated.Key words: soil fulvic acids, viscosity, configurational changes.

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Six leaf litter extracts (LLE) (eucalyptus (Eucaliptus globulus), fern (Pteridium aquilinium), oak (Quercus robur), chestnut (Castanea sátiva), laurel (Laurus nobilis), and ulex (Ulex europoeus) canopies) were isolated following an extraction procedure similar to that used for fulvic acids (FA) and were characterized by elemental analysis and UV-Vis, FT-IR, and synchronous molecular fluorescence (SyF) spectroscopies. Moreover, information about their interaction with the Cu(II) ion in aqueous solution (100 mg yL of LLE in 0.1 M KNO3 at pH = 6) was obtained from the measurement of SyF spectra at increasing concentrations of Cu(II). These spectral sets were treated by a self-modeling mixture analysis method (SIMPLISMA) to obtain improved quenching profiles to be used in the estimation by the method of Ryan and Weber of the conditional stability constants (Kc), concentration of binding sites, and percentage of fluorescent binding sites accessible for complexation. For comparison purposes, two samples of FA extracted from two horizons of an oak forest soil (0-5 cm and 5-15 cm) were also studied. The spectroscopic data obtained for LLE and FA were different. The results suggest that LLE are characterized by relatively high concentrations of individualized simple molecules and include reactive structures (alkene and protein residues). The ratio of aliphatic yaromatic structures was higher in LLE than for FA. Both LLE and soil FA form stable complexes with Cu(II), but the logarithm of the conditional stability constant of the 1:1 complexes is larger for LLE (about 5) than for the soil FA (about 4.5).Key words: leaf litter extracts, soil fulvic acids, synchronous fluorescence, Cu(II) complexation, SIMPLISMA, spectral pattern recognition.

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