Exchangeable cations and CEC determinations of some highly weathered soils

Eight methods to determine exchangeable cations and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were compared for some highly weathered benchmark soils of Alabama. The methods were: (1) 1N NH4OAc at pH 7.0 by replacement (for CEC only), (2) 1N NH4OAc at pH 7.0 (summation of basic cations plus 1N KCl extractable Al), (3) 1N NH4OAc at pH 7.0 (summation of basic cations plus exchangeable H+), (4) 0.1M BaCl2 (summation of basic cations plus exchangeable Mn, Fe and Al), (5) Mehlich 1 (summation of basic cations plus 1N KCl extractable Al), (6) Mehlich 1 (summation of basic cations plus exchangeable H+), (7) Mehlich 3 (summation of basic cations plus 1N KCl extractable Al), and (8) Mehlich 3 (summation of basic cations plus exchangeable H+). The 0.1M BaCl2 was chosen as the standard method for the highly weathered soils and the other methods compared to it. The results indicated that the 1N NH4OAc replacement method gave significantly higher CEC values compared to the summation methods. This was probably due to the overestimation of the field CEC caused by measurement of pH dependent cation exchange sites in these soils. There was, however, close agreement between the BaCl2 method and the summation methods that included extractable Al. The generally good agreement between these summation methods suggests that the Mehlich 1 and Mehlich 3 extractants, commonly used to determine available nutrients in the southeastem USA, may also be used to measure effective CEC of some acid‐rich sesquioxide benchmark soils of Alabama. However, 1N KCl extractable Al as opposed to exchangeable H+ should be included in the computation.