A hydrophobic fraction was extracted with benzene from a naturally occurring water-repellent soil. The extraction decreased the water stability of soil aggregates. Comparing this extraction with a similar one, with acetylacetone in benzene, the hydrophobic substances appear to behave as cementing substances of soil aggregates like the polyvalent metals linked with the organic matter and at a similar level.
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Giovannini et al. (1983) studied this question.