SOIL

ENVIRONMENTAL
CHEMISTRY

Agriculture
No other industry impacts as much as
agriculture does on the environment
Potential for environmental damage or
environmentally friendly as possible.

Soil
Soil: a variable mixture of minerals, organic
matter, and water capable of supporting
plant life on the earths surface
5% organic matter and 95% inorganic
matter. Peat soils, may contain as much as
95% organic material. Other soils contain as
little as 1% organic matter.

 According to the United Classification

System (UCS), the four major categories of
soil particle sizes are the following: Gravels
(260 mm) > sands (0.062 mm) > silts
(0.06-0.006 mm) > clays (less than 0.002
mm).

Water and Air in Soil

Transpiration
Waterlogged (water saturated)
One of the most marked chemical effects of
waterlogging is a reduction of pE by the action of organic
reducing agents acting through bacterial
catalysts.
Thus, the redox condition of the soil becomes much more
reducing, and the soil pE may drop from that of
water in
equilibrium with air (+13.6 at pH 7) to 1 or less

The Inorganic Components of Soil

Common soil mineral constituents are finely divided:
quartz (SiO2),
orthoclase (KAlSi3O8),
albite (NaAlSi3O8),
epidote (4CaO3(AlFe)2O36SiO2H2O),
geothite (FeO(OH)),
magnetite (Fe3O4),
calcium and magnesium carbonates (CaCO 3,
CaCO3MgCO3),
and oxides of manganese and titanium.

Organic Matter in Soil

Some organic compounds even contribute to
the weathering of mineral matter, the process
by which soil is formed. For example, C 2O42-,
oxalate ion, produced as a soil fungi
metabolite, occurs in soil as the calcium

Tanah
Bahan anorganik

Organic carbon in soil

Bahan organik
Biomass
Carbon in living
organism

Humus
Soil organic
matter

Nonhumic substances

Humic acid

Organic residues
Carbon in undecayed
and partially decayed
plant and animal
tissues

Humic substences

Fulvic acid

Humin

ACID-BASE AND ION EXCHANGE REACTIONS

IN SOILS
the ability of a sediment or soil to exchange cations is
expressed as the cation-exchange capacity (CEC), the
number of milliequivalents (meq) of monovalent cations
that can be exchanged per 100 g of soil (on a dryweight
basis).
The cation-exchange capacity of peat can range from
300400 meq/100 g

 When nutrient metal ions are taken up by plant

roots, hydrogen ion is exchanged for the metal ions.
This process, plus the leaching of calcium,
magnesium, and other metal ions from the soil by
water containing carbonic acid, tends to make the
soil acidic

Soil acts as a buffer and resists changes in pH

If the soil becomes too acidic for optimum plant growth, it

may be restored to productivity by liming, ordinarily
through the addition of calcium carbonate

Alkaline soils can be treated with aluminum

or iron sulfate, which release acid on hydrolysis

Ion Exchange Equilibria in Soil

At low pH, a metal oxide surface At higher pH values, the metal

may have a net positive charge oxide surface has a net
negative charge

NITROGEN IN SOIL