New Algorithm of Clay CEC for Soils in Tropical and Subtropical Regions of South China

Clay CEC is one of identification indexes of the LAC-ferric horizon which is the diagnostic horizon of ferrosols in Chinese Soil Taxonomy, and it is defined as soil CEC × 1000/clay content, rather than the measured CEC of the extracted clays;however, such a calculation method would definitely lead to an overestimation of clay CEC because it doesn’t remove the contribution to soil CEC from other soil parameters. In this study, the physiochemical data of the subhorizons from 82 soil series in the tropical and subtropical regions in south China were used, clay CEC was calculated according to the current formula and measured after clays being extracted, the measured and calculated clay CEC were compared, the influencing factors were analyzed for their difference, and the new algorithms were established for clay CEC. The results showed that the measured clay CEC was 21.86% - 99.53% with a mean of 66.88% of the calculated one (significantly lower at p < 0.01), and their difference was significantly correlated with the contents of clays, sand and OM, and mainly decided by the contents of clays and Fe2O3 (the contribution was 52.51% and 25.36%, respectively). By comparison of established regression models of clay CEC with other soil parameters, two new algorithms were recommended for clay CEC as follows: 1) Clay CEC = 10.32 − 0.14pH − 0.05OM − 0.11Fe2O3 + 0.01Silt − 0.01Clay + 1.17CECsoil, R2 = 0.705, P < 0.01;2) Clay CEC = −3.40 + 0.01Sand + 0.02Silt + 1.05CECsoil, R2 = 0.589, P < 0.01).