Basic relationships for salinity evaluation from measurements on soil solution

Abstract

Relationships among total ion concentration, electrical conductivity and osmotic potential have been determined on 137 saturation extracts from Australian soils. The results are presented in graphical form with linear regression equations of best fit, and are compared with results for western U.S.A. soils. If the relationships fitted to the US. data are corrected to the temperature at which the present measurements were made, the differences between the two are less than 20%. As well, the electrical conductivity, and the osmotic potential, have been estimated from the measured compositions of the extracts, and compared with the measured values. Good agreement is found for electrical conductivity over a large range, but only over a small range for osmotic potential.