Fundamentals of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity
Fundamentals of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity
Fundamentals of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity
Soils (Fertility)
Purdue University
Cooperative Extension Service
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Soils can be thought of as storehouses for plant nutrients. Many nutrients, such as calcium and magnesium, may
be supplied to plants solely from reserves held in the soil. Others like potassium are added regularly to soils as
fertilizer for the purpose of being withdrawn as needed by crops. The relative ability of soils to store one
particular group of nutrients, the cations, is referred to as cation exchange capacity or CEC.
Soils are composed of a mixture of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. Both the clay and organic matter particles
have a net negative charge. Thus, these negatively-charged soil particles will attract and hold positively-charged
particles, much like the opposite poles of a magnet attract each other. By the same token, they will repel other
negatively-charged particles, as like poles of a magnet repel each other.
The most common soil cations (including their chemical symbol and charge) are: calcium (Ca++), magnesium
(Mg++), potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), hydrogen (H+) and sodium (Na+). Notice that some cations have
more than one positive charge.
Common soil anions (with their symbol and charge) include: chlorine (Cl-), nitrate (NO3-), sulfate (S04=) and
phosphate (PO43-). Note also that anions can have more than one negative charge and may be combinations of
elements with oxygen.
The total number of cations a soil can hold--or its total negative charge--is the soil's cation exchange capacity.
The higher the CEC, the higher the negative charge and the more cations that can be held.
CEC is measured in millequivalents per 100 grams of soil (meq/100g). A meq is the number of ions which total a
specific quantity of electrical charges. In the case of potassium (K+), for example, a meq of K ions is
approximately 6 x 1020 positive charges. With calcium, on the other hand, a meq of Ca++ is also 6 x 1020
positive charges, but only 20 ions because each Ca ion has two positive charges.
Following are the common soil nutrient cations and the amounts in pounds per acre that equal 1 meq/100g:
Table 1. Normal Range of CEC Values for Common Color/Texture Soil Groups.
CEC in
Soil groups Examples meg/100g
-----------------------------------------------
Light colored sands Plainfield 3-5
Bloomfield
Cation exchange capacity is usually measured in soil testing labs by one of two methods. The direct method is to
replace the normal mixture of cations on the exchange sites with a single cation such as ammonium (NH4+), to
replace that exchangeable NH4+ with another cation, and then to measure the amount of NH4+ exchanged
(which was how much the soil had held).
More commonly. the soil testing labs estimate CEC by summing the calcium, magnesium and potassium
measured in the soil testing procedure with an estimate of exchangeable hydrogen obtained from the buffer pH.
Generally, CEC values arrived at by this summation method will be slightly lower than those obtained by direct
measures.
Cations on the soil's exchange sites serve as a source of resupply for those in soil water which were removed by
plant roots or lost through leaching. The higher the CEC, the more cations which can be supplied. This is called
the soil's buffer capacity.
Cations can be classified as either acidic (acid- forming) or basic. The common acidic cations are hydrogen and
aluminum; common basic ones are calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. The proportion of acids and
bases on the CEC is called the percent base saturation and can be calculated as follows:
The concept of base saturation is important, because the relative proportion of acids and bases on the exchange
sites determines a soil's pH. As the number of Ca++ and Mg++ions decreases and the number of H+ and
Al+++ions increases, the pH drops. Adding limestone replaces acidic hydrogen and aluminum cations with basic
calcium and magnesium cations, which increases the base saturation and raises the pH.
In the case of Midwestern soils, the actual mix of cations found on the exchange sites can vary markedly. On
most, however, Ca++ and Mg++ are the dominant basic cations and are in greater concentrations than K+.
Normally, very little sodium is found in Midwestern soils.
Recommended liming and fertilization practices will vary for soils with widely differing cation exchange
capacities. For instance, soils having a high CEC and high buffer capacity change pH much more slowly under
normal management than low-CEC soils. Therefore, high-CEC soils generally do not need to be limed as
frequently as low-CEC soils; but when they do become acid and require liming, higher lime rates are needed to
reach optimum pH.
CEC can also influence when and how often nitrogen and potassium fertilizers can be applied. On low-CEC
soils (less than 5 meg/20000g), for example, some leaching of cations can occur. Fall applications of ammonium
N and potassium on these soils could result in some leaching below the root zone, particularly in the case of
sandy soils with low-CEC subsoils. Thus, spring fertilizer application may mean improved production
efficiency. Also, multi-year potash applications are not recommended on low-CEC soils.
Higher-CEC soils (greater than 10 meg/100g), on the other hand, experience little cation leaching, thus making
fall application of N and K a realistic alternative. Applying potassium for two crops can also be done effectively
on these soils. Thus, other factors such as drainage will have a greater effect on the fertility management
practices used on high- CEC soils.
Summary
The cation exchange capacity of a soil determines the number of positively-charged ions cations-that the soil can
hold. This, in turn, can have a significant effect on the fertility management of the soil.
RR3/93
Cooperative Extension work in Agriculture and Home Economics, State of Indiana, Purdue University and U.S.
Department of Agriculture cooperating: H.A. Wadsworth, Director, West Lafayette, IN. Issued in furtherance of
the acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914. The Cooperative Extension Service of Purdue University is an equal
opportunity/equal access institution.