CHAPTER 1

COMPOSITION OF THE SOIL

G.H. Bolt and M.G.M. Bruggentwert

A discussion of the chemical behavior of soil, as is the purpose of this text, is

logically preceded by a description of the chemical behavior is then defined as the totality of
(physico-) chemical relations occurring between these constituents (and possibly other
materials added to the soil in situ). The difficulty with this reasoning is to allocate a suitable
starting point. Strictly speaking one must view the soil as a reaction intermediate between
some parent material, often consisting of certain rock formations, and a ‘dead’ end of the
weathering processes (acting on these parent materils), comprising some extremely resistant
components like e.g. quartz and some iron and aluminium oxides, plus the wash-out present
in the oceans as solutes. This encompassing approach to soil chemistry offers little
perspective, as the rate factors of all chemical relations in soil vary from a half-time of
minutes for e.g. certain adsorption reactions to one of centuries for others. If furthermore the
chemical reactions occurring in soil are viewed as induced by the action of certain
‘environmental’ factors, it is clear that for the very slow reactions mentioned above the
external action may vary much faster than the rate at which the reaction in the soil is
proceeding. It thus seems reasonable to ignore at this stage the reactions of the very slow type
comprising the processes that are usually indicated with the name soil formation, and treat
these in a separate chapter (cf. chapter 8).

Narrowing down the definition of the chemical behavior of soil to the relatively fast
reactions (e.g. with a half time of less than a growing season) one may try to enumerate the
composition of the soil in situ.. In view of the above, however, it is understandable that ‘the’
composition of the soil will comprise an enormous list of different components. While
referring to existing texts for such listings, here it will only be attempted to present an overall
picture based primarily on the reactivity on short term basis, as particularly governed by the
solubility and adsorption behavior of the solid phase components. Recognizing that the
composition of the mobile phases of the soil, i.e. liquid and gas phase, is determined largely
by the interaction of the solid phase with the inflowing mobile phases, these phases will be
treated thereafter.
1.1 SOLID PHASE COMPONENTS
1.1.1 Inorganic Components

A brcad listing of the types of inorganic components found in soil is given in table 1.1.,
grouped according to the anionic constituents. These will discussed according of their
significance with respect to adsorption behavior and solubility. In this respect one must
distinguish between materials with a high specific surface area, S, and the coarse materials
with a very low value of S, which are of no importance with regard to adsorption reactions.
For practical purposes it is convenient to use a value of S equal to 103 m 2/kg (= 1 m 2/g) as a
rough division line between coarse materials and fine materials accounting for the surface
phenomena treated in chapter 3.
As is usually treated in Soil Phsics texts, the value of S depends on the particle size of
the solid phase grains. Using a limit of 2 μm ‘equivalent’ diameter of the grains, as
determined with ‘mechanical analysis’ employing sedimentation in water, one finds that the
value of S corresponding to this diameter is about 1 m 2/g.
As to solubility it is pointed out that materials with a high value of S almost invariably have a
very low solubility, since the comparatively rapid translocation of the liquid phase in soil
would normally lead to fast disappearance of very small particles of a readily soluble salt.
The solubility of certain salts, or better the solubility of a solid phase salt in soil, depends on
the composition of the liquid phase, e.g. notably the Ph-value of the latter, and hence division
lines remain somewhat arbitrary. From the viewpoint of soil as a biotipe, however, it is
practical to make a division into three classes, i.c. ‘high’ solubility covering those salts that in
a saturated solution will inhibit plant growth because of the high osmotic pressure (e.g. in
excess of 5-10 bars), ‘intermediate’ solubility, i.e. the saturated solutions not exhibiting
osmotic inhibition of plant growth but the solubility being high enough to play a significant
role in determining the ionic composition of the soil solution (around 0.01 molar), and the
remaining class of ‘low’ solubility.
Looking at table 1.1 with the above classification in mind one finds as coarse materials
with high solubility the nitrates, most halides and some sulfates. These solid phase
components are only present in soil in sizable amounts under expectional conditions, i.e. in
so-called saline soils (at low moisture contents). As large areas on earth are (adversely)
affected by the presence of such salts, a separate treatment of these soils (saline-and
sodicsoils) iks given in chapter 9.
 Intermediate solubility could be assigned to a range, the most common ones being
gypsum (CaSO 4, 2 H 2 O ) and several carbonates (e.g. calcite which dissolves as bicarbonate
at favorable conditions with respect to