Dear all, I found a unique soil having CEC (cation exchange capacity) below 50 cmolc/kg but PBS (percent base saturation) as high as 260%. Actually, the soil has very high amounts of calcium (Ca) and sodium (Na).
Why do you think that the soil contains PBS greater than 100% ?
It is because there could be some ions found freely on soil solution. Especially Ca
Dear Dr. Alemayehu, I also got similar problems with soil data which I sometimes got PBS greater than 100%. I need more information related to this specific issue. Please share us your thought.
Kind regards
Yeah. I got the similar finding too. But it has lower (acidic) pH. Has >100% PSB and CEC ranging at 1-5meq/100g. Why calcium content is higher at lower soil pH?
Does Ammonium acetate dissolves the calcium in soil with lower pH?
This situation is probably caused by free Ca ions in the soil solution.
I've found an article that talks about high PBS.
Take a look at this reference, hope it helps
Tomašic, M., Zgorelec, Ž., Jurišic, A., & Kisic, I. (2013). Cation exchange capacity of dominant soil types in the Republic of Croatia. Journal of Central European Agriculture.
In principle, the base saturation value in soil is calculated from the number of base cations such as Ca+Mg+K+Na divided by the CEC value multiplied by 100%. Based on my experience of researching soils in Central Java, Indonesia, we found that in soils that develop from limestone parent material, many base cations, especially Ca, will be released in solution so that the base saturation value is greater than 100%, it can even reach 150%. Likewise, in soil that is developed from fresh volcanic material which contains a lot of weatherable minerals such as feldspar, etc., in the soil colloid system there will be lots of base cations, especially Ca and K, so the base saturation value can be more than 100%.
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