Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Exchange Equilibria of Sodium on Some British Soils

Abstract

BECKETT1,2 has discussed potassium–calcium exchange energies in soil suspensions, using a development of a thermodynamic approach suggested by Woodruff3 and Schofield and Taylor4. He showed that a graph of the “activity ratio” (called ARK) in the solution plotted against the changes in exchangeable soil potassium (ΔK) is usually linear except at small values of ARK where it curves sharply and becomes asymptotic to the ΔK axis (Fig. 2). ARK is directly related to the change in free energy when equivalent amounts of potassium and calcium are exchanged between the soil and solution phases. Beckett2 considers that the curvature is produced by a small proportion of potassium ions held on discrete exchange sites with a greater preference for potassium relative to calcium. These sites determine the exchange energy when nearly all the exchangeable potassium is removed. Very recently he has found evidence of similar behaviour for calcium and magnesium5.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Beckett, P. H. T., J. Soil Sci., 15, 9 (1964).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Beckett, P. H. T., Soil Sci., 97, 376 (1964).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Woodruff, C. M., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Proc., 19, 36, 98 and 167 (1955).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schofield, R. K., and Taylor, A. W., J. Soil Sci., 6, 137 (1955).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Beckett, P. H. T., Soil Sci., 100, 118 (1965).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bolt, G. H., Soil Sci., 79, 267 (1955).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bower, C. A., Soil Sci., 88, 32 (1959).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Pratt, P. F., Whittig, L. D., and Grover, B. L., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Proc., 26, 227 (1962).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Levy, R., and Mor, E., Soil Sci., 98, 152 (1964).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Schultz, R. K., Overstreet, R., and Barshad, I., Soil Sci., 99, 161 (1964).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

TINKER, P., BOLTON, J. Exchange Equilibria of Sodium on Some British Soils. Nature 212, 548 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/212548a0

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/212548a0

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing