Apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) Measurement (CAT#: STEM-PPA-0030-WXH)

Introduction

The field-scale application of apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) to agriculture has its origin in the measurement of soil salinity, which is an arid-zone problem associated with irrigated agricultural land and with areas having shallow water tables. Apparent soil electrical conductivity is influenced by a combination of physico-chemical properties including soluble salts, clay content and mineralogy, soil water content, bulk density, organic matter, and soil temperature; consequently, measurements of ECa have been used at field scales to map the spatial variation of several edaphic properties: soil salinity, clay content or depth to clay-rich layers, soil water content, the depth of flood deposited sands, and organic matter. In addition, ECa has been used at field scales to determine a variety of anthropogenic properties: leaching fraction, irrigation and drainage patterns, and compaction patterns due to farm machinery.