A method is proposed for determining the titratable acidity and the total exchangeable base cations by extracting the soil with a solution of 1 M NH4Cl-0.1 M imidazole buffered at pH 7.0. In nonsaline soils the cation exchange capacity is obtained as the sum of those two values. The procedure is rapid and accurate compared with the reference methods, regardless of soil type and/or base status. With regard to the calcareous soils, a technique is described for correcting the figure of total exchangeable bases for Ca and Mg dissoluted from soil carbonates which makes use of acidimetric titration of the soil extract. For the determination of the “effective” cation exchange capacity, which more closely reflects the actual cationic composition of the exchanger phase of the acid forest soils, an extraction of the soil with unbuffered 1 M NH4Cl solution was found most satisfactory.
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Hans Nõmmik (1974) studied this question.