Does electrical resistivity correlate with any soil properties?
Electrical resistivity is correlated with a number of soil properties, which influence density of mobile electrical charges. For saline soils these properties are the total salinity and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). For non-saline soils the relationships have been developed with soil texture, stone content, cation exchange capacity, humus content, Ca+Mg, etc. It is important to understand that soil electrical resistivity or conductivity are complex characteristics of soil and should be used together with other conventional methods of soil analysis. The usual path is to delineate the soil survey area into regions with different resistivity and than sample those areas to determine what properties are causing these differences. In some cases only one or two soil properties primarily influence electrical resistivity, and field electrical methods can be used to evaluate those properties in-situ.
Related Questions
- I want to determine the water availability (water potential) of my soil. Are moisture release curves for soil available from Decagon to correlate water content and water potential?
- What are the most important soil properties that make it fertile?
- Does electrical resistivity correlate with any soil properties?
