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EVT 533

SOIL SCIENCE AND ANALYSIS

EXPERIMENT 6 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY

MARDHIATUL NAJWA BINTI MD AB LAZIS


2017632356 (AS2292C)

LECTURER: DR. YONG SOON KONG

DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 26TH MARCH 2018

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 10TH APRIL 2018


INTRODUCTION

Soil salinity is the term that is commonly used for describing the salt content within the soil. High
amount of salt causes increasing in its salinity. In natural order, the Earth itself contained saline water
inside the layers underneath. The top level of the saline water is called water table. The water table
will not always be at the same height to the surface of the Earth. The level sometimes can be high or
low. The usual natural factor affecting the water table rises is always rain. Rainfalls, especially
excessive ones will increase the level rapidly thus the salt content in the water table will increase the
salinity of soil. Luckily the big trees with big trunks and deep rooted protect the human or other living
things from excessive salinity that will reduce the fragile crops. Big trees needed a lot of water and
other things for growth and sustaining lives. The roots will absorb water even during rainfalls the
water table will not have the time to reach the fertile soil. The thing is, humans are the only one
destroying order of the nature by cutting down big trees for purposes such as agriculture and
urbanization. This will increase the water table as the trees are no more to absorb the water below.
Plus, agriculture needs the crops to be man made watered thus lead to water table rising.

OBJECTIVE

To know the electric conductivity of the soil sample and its classification based on USDA ranges.

METHOD

10.080 g soil sample was added into a 100 mL beaker containing 50 mL DI water and was shaken at
15 rpm for 1 hour. While at that, the electrode of the electric conductivity machine prior rinsed and
wiped off excess of DI water was submerged almost full into a 0.01 M KCl solution. The reading
showed was recorded. After 1 hour, the electrode was submerged into the soil suspension also almost
full. The electrode was always rinsed with DI water and wiped off its excess before and after
submerging into any kind of solution. The readings showed for electric conductivity for soil
suspension were also noted and recorded.
DATA

Soil 1
Parameters
1 2 Average
Weight of soil (g) 10.080 10.060 10.070
Conductivity of 0.01 KCl (dS/m) 1.413
Measured EC of KCl, K (dS/m) 1.288
S (dS/m) 29.70 22.20 26.00
S (ppm) 0.041
EC25 (dS/m) 0.045
USDA Class A

CALCULATION

Conversion unit from parts per million (ppm) to decidiemens per metre (dS/m)

a) 1 dS/m = 640 ppm


SAverage = 26.0 ppm
= 0.041 dS/m
b) K = 1.288 dS/m

For meter with conductivity value:

𝑑𝑆 𝑆 𝑥 1.413
EC25 ( ) =
𝑚 𝐾

0.041 𝑥 1.413
= 1.288

= 0.045 dS/m
DISCUSSION

This experiment was conducted to determine the electric conductivity or EC of soil sample taken. The
lower the electric conductivity, the lower the soil salinity. Due to this statement, it was best described
the result whereas the calculated EC showed 0.045 dS/m which was rather low as expected. This can
be explained as the soil sample was taken from a ground surface surrounded by old and big shady
trees with true barks. The trees already functioning as absorbing most of the water that passes through
makes the water table not arising thus soil salinity is low. 0.045 dS/m falls in the range of 0 to 2 dS/m
in the USDA soil class for the EC of soil suspension hence directly falls in the A class. This means
that the soil sample taken considered to possessed low osmotic potential and sensitive tolerance of
crop salt. Comparing readings with the other two groups, the values also low as the soil samples were
taken not too far from each other. Moving on to the experimental calibrated value of the potassium or
K solution. The value was 1.288 dS/m not so far from the standard calibrated value which is 1.413
dS/m with the difference of 0.125 dS/m by 12.5 % only. Although, the slight difference was most
probably caused by the systematic error which occurred during submerging the electrode to the
solution. The process only done once and not repeatedly. This action has brought out the less
consistent value for the average purpose. This can be prevented by repeating the submerging process
at least 3 times for the consistency.

CONCLUSION

The objectives were achieved where the soil sample taken from the ground surrounded by big leafy
trees with true barks gave out low electric conductivity, 0.045 dS/m, an A in USDA class thus low
salinity.
REFERENCES

Sparks, D. L. (2003). The Chemistry of Saline and Sodic Soils. Environmental Soil Chemistry (2nd

ed.). Academic Press, London.

Bimal, K. P. and Harun, R. (2017). Salinity Intrusion and Impacts. Climatic Hazards in Coastal
Bangladesh. Waltham, Massachusetts, United States.

Sameen R. I., Syed W. S., Kazi, A. G., Azooz, M. M. and Parvaiz, A. (2016). Phytoremediation of
Saline Soils for Sustainable Agricultural Productivity. Plant Metal Interaction-Emerging
Remediation Techniques. Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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