Cation Exchange Capacity
Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a fundamental soil property that measures the soil's ability to hold and release positively charged nutrient ions (cations: K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, H⁺, Al³⁺) in forms available to plant roots. CEC reflects the amount and type of clay minerals and organic matter in the soil—compounds with negatively charged surface sites that attract and temporarily bind cations. High CEC soils retain nutrients longer and require less frequent fertilization; low CEC soils lose nutrients rapidly through leaching.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Thomas, G. W. (1982). Exchangeable cations. In A. L. Page, R. H. Miller, & D. R. Keeney (Eds.), Methods of soil analysis. Part 2: Chemical and microbiological properties (2nd ed., pp. 159-165). American Society of Agronomy. · URL
- Sumner, M. E., & Miller, W. P. (1994). Cation exchange capacity and exchange coefficients. In R. A. Feet (Ed.), Methods of soil analysis (3rd ed., pp. 1201-1229). American Society of Agronomy. · URL
- Bouldin, D. R., & Thorne, M. (1997). Charge and non-charge effects on cation exchange reactions in soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 61(1), 25-32. · URL
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.