Cation ratio of soil structural stability (CROSS)

Sodium salts tend to dominate salt-affected soils and groundwater in Australia and therefore, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) is being used to parameterize soil sodicity and the effects of sodium on soil structure. Recent reports, however, now draw attention to elevated concentrations of potassium and/or magnesium in some soils naturally and also as a result of increasing irrigation with recycled water in Australia. Therefore, there is a need to derive and define a new ratio of these cations in place of SAR, which will indicate the effects of Na and K on clay dispersion and Ca and Mg on flocculation. Rengasamy and Sumner (1998) derived the flocculation power of these cations and on this basis Rengasamy (unpublished) defined the cation ratio of soil structural stability (CROSS). This paper gives the results of an experiment conducted on ten soil samples on hydraulic conductivity using a number of artificially prepared irrigation waters, containing different proportions of the cations Ca, Mg, K and Na. The relative changes in hydraulic conductivity of these soils reflected the flocculating power of the cations, compared to the control treatment of using CaCl2 solution. Clay dispersion was found to be highly correlated to CROSS rather than to SAR.Alla G. Marchuk and Pichu Rengasamyhttp://trove.nla.gov.au/work/37679232http://www.iuss.org/19th%20WCSS/19th%20WCSS_Handbook_REAL%20HANDBOOK_V10_BACK%20COVER%20change.pd