Soil Chemistry Information - Soil Quality Knowledge Base

Understand soil chemistry and its effects

The Soil chemical attributes section contains information on different topics within soil chemistry and nutrition features. Pages within present an overview of the current state of knowledge of soil chemical attributes, explain the principles and properties of different features, highlight insights from research, and Resources are suggested throughout these.

Alkaline loamy duplex. Photo: David Hall, DPIRD.

Soil pH

Soil pH is an important indicator of chemical and biological processes that occur in soil.

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Aerial photograph of the northern sandplain region in Western Australia. Photo: DPIRD

Aluminium-tolerant (left) and -susceptible (right) wheat root morphology in the presence of aluminium. Photo: CSIRO Zhou et al., 2011

Soil acidity

Acidification of agricultural soil is a global problem and is a significant threat to crop yields in areas of South America, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as Australia.

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Calcareous clay soil, Photo: Peter Maloney, DPIRD.

Impact of transient salinity on barley. Photo: Ed Barrett-Lennard, DPIRD.

Sodic and alkaline soil

Sodicity and alkalinity damage soil structure by decreasing aggregate stability, increasing soil density and contributing to the development of hard layers in both surface and subsurface soil.

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Expression of dryland salinity at Nambling, WA. From Soil Quality: 8 Sodic and Alkaline Soil (Barrett-Lennard et al. 2022). Photo: Chris Gazey, DPIRD.

Soil salinity

Salinity reduces the flow of water into plant roots and may result in the death of crops, trees and pastures even though the soil appears to be wet.

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illustrated diagram of soil phosphorus cycle — The phosphorus cycle. From Soil Quality: 10 Plant Nutrition (Scanlan et al. 2023). Image: Ryan Borrett, Murdoch University.

Supply of nutrients to plant roots via diffusion. From Soil Quality: 10 Plant Nutrition (Scanlan et al. 2023). Concept: Gustavo Boitt, UWA. Image: Science with Style.

Soil fertility

Soil fertility describes the availability of nutrients in soil. Soil fertility is usually reflective of land use. The fertility of a soil conveys not only the turnover of organic and inorganic inputs, but also the management of soil condition.

Explore individual pages on specific soil and plant nutrients and aspects of soil fertility:

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Soil pollution at the Brukunga Pyrites Mine, east of Adelaide in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. 1992.Photo: CSIRO Science Image.

Soil, organic matter and chemicals entering waterways as a result of soil erosion can cause poor water quality. Photo: CSIRO Science Image.

Soil and water pollutants

Organic or inorganic substances can be present in harmful amounts in soil, water and air. The main causes of land and water contamination are largely a result of poor or inadequate practices linked with human habitation and development.

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