Evaluation of relationship between dispersibility of soils and charge characteristics using a modified ion adsorption method; An example of soils from Wakayama Prefecture,Japan

The relationship between the charge characteristics and the dispersibility of soils from reclaimed land (highly dispersive) and adjacent forest area (physically stable) was investigated.

To evaluate the amount of soil charges quantitatively, the measurement based on cation and anion adsorption (ion adsorption method) was attempted in two ways, where special attention was paid to the solution concentration. In the conventional ion adsorption method, the treatments with concentrated solutions (1 mol L^-1) were included in the process. In the modified method, soils were treated with dilute solutions (5 mmol L^-1), in taking account of the soil solution concentration in humid temperate regions. The amount of charges derived from the modified method was smaller than that from the conventional one, especially in the high pH zone. In a preliminary experiment, the extraction of polyvalent cations from soils was found to be significantly affected by the salt concentration. Thus, the use of solutions with an excessively high concentration was considered to result in an error in the estimation of the active charges in soils which would contribute to the dispersion behavior in the field.

The applicability of the modified method for analyzing the dispersion behavior of soils was evaluated by relating the dispersibility of silts and clays at different pHs with the charge characteristics determined under the same ionic strength. The dispersion ratio of silts of the reclaimed land reached maximum values at pH 5.5, above which the ratio decreased, whereas the ratio of clays began to increase in the pH range above 6. The dispersion ratio of silts of the forest area increased in the pH range above 6, whereas that of clays remained constant at a low level in all the pH ranges below 7. The changes in the dispersibility of silt plus clay fractions corresponded to total charge characteristics determined by the modified method. Thus, the evaluation of soil charges by the modified ion adsorption method was considered to be effective to predict soil dispersibility under field conditions, indicating that it could replace electrokinetic analyses such as electrophoresis in studies on the dispersion/flocculation behavior of soils.