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Chemistry of Soil Profiles Indicates Recurring Patterns and Modes of Moisture Migration¹

ABSTRACT

The hypothesis that patterns and modes of soil moisture migration can be interpreted from relationships between soluble sodium percentage (SSP) and total soluble cations (TSC) with depth in soil profiles is developed. Capillary migration of moisture during the soil drying process is more apt to leave a chemical imprint on soil profiles than the initial wetting process since it occurs last, and cations move in closer proximity to exchange surfaces. Soil profiles must be sampled in contiguous increments small enough to differentiate important variables. Each soil sample must be wetted exactly to saturation prior to extraction of soluble Ca, Mg, and Na for analysis. Both cation exchange and salt precipitation cause progressive losses of multivalent cations from solution as moisture moves through soil. Resulting increases in SSP indicate directions of moisture migration. Decreases in TSC accompanied by increases in SSP apparently result from movement in thin films in response to capillary tensions > 1 bar (salt sieving). Moisture migration in extremely thin films in response to high tensions at forward extremities of capillary migrations apparently produces increases in TSC values accompanied by increases in SSP values (salt precipitation).

¹ U. S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, Soil and Moisture Conservation Program, Federal Center, Denver, Colo. Published with permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey as partial results of a project titled, "Interrelationships between ion distribution and water movement in soils and associated vegetation."

² Supervisory Soil Scientist (Chemistry) and Physical Science Aid (Geology), respectively.

Received for publication December 5, 1963. Accepted for publication December 14, 1964.