HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Frenkel, H. Articles by Fey, M. V. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Frenkel, H. Articles by Fey, M. V. Agricola Articles by Frenkel, H. Articles by Fey, M. V.

Organic and Inorganic Anion Effects on Reference and Soil Clay Critical Flocculation Concentration

Institute of Soils and Water, The Volcani Centre, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, Israel

M. V. Fey

Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Natal, P.O. Box 375, Pietermaritzburg 3200, Republic of South Africa

* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Maintaining adequate soil permeability and favorable soil structure is largely dependent on the flocculation-dispersion characteristics of the soil clay fraction. The critical flocculation concentration (CFC) of the clay fraction of three strongly structured clay soils from Natal (two dominated by smectite and one by kaolinite) was compared with that of smectite (bentonite from Wyoming) and kaolinite (from Georgia) in Na- and Ca-saturated forms. The soil clays had much higher CFC than their reference mineral counterparts in both NaCl and CaCl₂ systems. The addition of humic acid extracted from one of the soils and of citrate, formate, orthophosphate, carbonate, and silicate to the reference clays increased the CFC by as much as a factor of 50. Kaolinite was approximately 10 times more sensitive than bentonite to this dispersion effect of specifically adsorbing ligands. The results suggest that natural levels of soil humus, and possibly of certain inorganic anions, may be sufficient to impart a high degree of dispersion on the soil clay fraction. There is, therefore, some doubt as to the quantitative importance of clay mineral composition in the dispersion behavior of soils.

Contribution from the Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Natal.

Received for publication September 26, 1990.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Wallach, O. Ben-Arie, and E. R. Graber Soil Water Repellency Induced By Long-Term Irrigation with Treated Sewage Effluent J. Environ. Qual., September 8, 2005; 34(5): 1910 - 1920. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Lado, M. Ben-Hur, and S. Assouline Effects of Effluent Irrigation on Seal Formation, Infiltration, and Soil Loss during Rainfall Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., August 4, 2005; 69(5): 1432 - 1439. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Aydin, T. Yano, and S. Kilic Dependence of Zeta Potential and Soil Hydraulic Conductivity on Adsorbed Cation and Aqueous Phase Properties Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., March 1, 2004; 68(2): 450 - 459. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Lu, L. Wu, and J. Gan Determination of Polyacrylamide in Soil Waters by Size Exclusion Chromatography J. Environ. Qual., September 1, 2003; 32(5): 1922 - 1926. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Tarchitzky and Y. Chen Rheology of Sodium-montmorillonite suspensions: Effects of humic substances and pH Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., March 1, 2002; 66(2): 406 - 412. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A.I. Mamedov, I. Shainberg, and G.J. Levy Irrigation with Effluents: Effects of Prewetting Rate and Clay Content on Runoff and Soil Loss J. Environ. Qual., November 1, 2001; 30(6): 2149 - 2156. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A.I. Mamedov, I. Shainberg, and G.J. Levy Irrigation with Effluent Water: Effects of Rainfall Energy on Soil Infiltration Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., March 1, 2000; 64(2): 732 - 737. [Abstract] [Full Text]