Abstract |
One of the ways to estimate soluble salt content is to measure the electrical conductivity of the leachate and correlate the conductivity with the dissolved solid in solution. If specimens are leached with an insufficient amount of water, some of the salt present in the soil may not dissolve, causing the amount of soluble salts to be underestimated. Electrical conductivity measurements also can be used to detect this condition and water can be added until an unsaturated solution is obtained. Then the volume of water used to determine soluble salt content can be adjusted accordingly. Using this approach, five different soils from Las Vegas, NV, were evaluated over a series of water-soil dilution ratios from 2:1 to 100:1. In two cases, the 2:1 dilution was adequate, but for the other three, it was not. This illustrates the importance of using an unsaturated dilution for determining soluble salt content. |