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The influence of organic matter on aggregate stability in some British soils
Author(s) -
CHANEY K.,
SWIFT R.S.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 0022-4588
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1984.tb00278.x
Subject(s) - organic matter , soil water , silt , aggregate (composite) , soil organic matter , cation exchange capacity , chemistry , soil science , environmental chemistry , humus , nitrogen , environmental science , materials science , geology , organic chemistry , composite material , paleontology
SUMMARY The stability of aggregates from 26 soils selected from agricultural areas was measured by wet‐sieving and the results correlated with sand, silt, clay, nitrogen, organic matter and iron contents and with cation exchange capacity. Highly significant correlations were obtained for the relationships between aggregate stability and organic matter and some properties associated with it. No other soil constituent investigated had a significant relationship with aggregate stability, indicating that organic matter is mainly responsible for the stabilization of aggregates in these soils. The relationships between aggregate stability, and organic matter content plus some of its component fractions were examined in more detail using 120 soils. Total organic matter, total carbohydrate and humic material extracted by various reagents each gave highly or very highly significant correlations with aggregate stability. However, whilst it was not possible to distinguish whether any one organic component was more important than another, the results indicate that soil organic matter levels can be used diagnostically to identify soils which may show problems of structural instability.