2006 G.

Huluka

INTRODUCTION

Soil acidity was one of the acute problems facing agriculture before appli-
cation of liming materials became a routine remedial practice. From the
1930s to 1960s, many soil acidity correction methods that involved buffer
solution for rapid determination of lime requirement were developed (Pierre
and Worley 1928; Morgan 1930; Mehlich 1938; Woodruff 1948; Adams
and Evans 1962; Shoemaker et al. 1961; Peech 1965). van Leirop (1983)
and Ssali and Nuwamanya (1981) have studied application of buffer
solutions for liming determination of acidic organic and tropical soils, respect-
ively. More recently, Liu et al. (2004) determined lime requirement of 17
Georgian soils by direct titration with Ca(OH)2. Soil testing labs have been
making recommendations of limestone or other specific liming materials
required to raise soil pH to a desired value under field conditions for their
respective clients. A comprehensive review of the common soil lime require-
ment determination methods for different regions in the United States and a
detailed procedure used in each region is given by Sims (1996).
Buffer solutions resist abrupt change in pH and have been used to
determine the amount of liming materials needed to raise soil pH to a
specific value. Buffer solutions are expected to measure both the capacity
(fraction of reserve, exchangeable, and soluble acidity) and the intensity
(soil solution acidity) factors of soil acidity. The ability of buffer solutions
to measure the capacity factor of soil acidity is the main reason for their
extensive use. Soil parent material, texture, organic matter content, and
exchangeable phytotoxic elements [e.g., aluminum (Al), iron (Fe),
manganese (Mn)] content affect the amount of lime required to adjust soil
pH to a targeted value (1996).
Acidic soils are prevalent in the southeastern United States due to humid
subtropical climate and acid-causing anthropogenic activities. The Adams-
Evans buffer was developed in the early 1960s for soils that predominate in
1 : 1 and low-activity clays, Fe and Al oxides and have relatively low cation
exchange capacity (CEC) (5). Many soil-testing labs in this region have
adopted the Adams-Evans buffer solution to make lime recommendations
for different crops to correct soil acidity problems (Sims 1996; SRIEG-18
1992). Most buffer procedures determine the lime requirement of acid soils
by relating the change in pH of the buffer reacting with the soil and the corre-
sponding soil water pH. Adams and Evans (1962) developed a quadratic
relationship between soil water pH and degree of base unsaturation or acid sat-
uration (Hsat1) by applying the least-square statistical method to determine the
best-fit equation. A solution of the quadratic equation for soil water pH and
desired pH (Hsat2) was used to determine the amount of liming material
needed. The equations are given as follows:

Measured soil pH ¼ 7:79–5:55Hsat1 þ 2:227ðHsat1 Þ2 ; ð1Þ