Vertical Movement of Salts in Unsaturated Soil by Electro-Chemico-Osmosis

This study investigates the vertical replacement of salts, variability of electrical conductivity (EC) and soil acidity (pH) due to direct electrical current. A Plexiglas cylinder 100 cm in depth with a 14 cm radius was used as a soil container and filled with uniform moist soil to 90 cm. During the experiments, the bottom 10 cm of soil in the cylinder was kept saturated. A steel bar was used as a positive electrode in the saturated part of the soil. Wire mesh was used as the negative electrode and was placed 10 cm in depth from the surface of the soil. A current of 80 V and 0.3 amp was applied between the saturated and upper part of the soil. It was found that, after one week, the Na+ concentration increased from anode to cathode (as for the control), while Ca++ and Mg++ decreased from anode to cathode. It can be concluded that Na+ moves fromanode to cathode, but Ca++ and Mg++ move from cathode to anode. This replacement of ions is important in soil alkalinity reclamation. In this study, the mean decreased from 0.9 to 0.49. Also, the average electrical conductivity, or salinity, decreased in the soil column, moving from cathode to anode. These means were 4.1 and 1.1 ds/m for the control and treatment, respectively. Change in the acidity of the soil was not significant.