I'm currently doing a test on soil CEC on mineral soil. The parameters that we are testing are total Cation exchange capacity (CEC), Potassium exchange cation (KEC), Magnesium exchange cation (MgEC) and Calcium exchange cation (CaEC).

From what i can understand, CEC is the total of KEC, MgEC, CaEC, and exchange capacity of other micronutrients. However, i'm getting weird readings for certain samples:

                  Sample 1         Sample 2

CEC              7.37                32.93

KEC              1.87                 0.82

MgEC           1.00                 1.81

CaEC           6.85                  6.51

For sample 1, the sum of KEC, MgEC and CaEC is 9.72 which is more than the total CEC at 7.37. If this possible?

For sample 2, the sum of KEC, MgEC and CaEC is 9.14 which is too much difference from the total CEC at 32.93. As far as i know, the main value that contribute to total CEC should come from KEC, MgEC and CaEC, but in this case, there is too much difference, where did the 23.79 (32.93 -9.14) went to?

Please advice, thank you.