Chemical migration during soil water retention curve evaluation.

Wetting and drying (W-D) cycles can induce important elemental migrations in soils. The main purpose of this work was to study the possible existence of soil chemical elemental migrations in samples submitted to repeated W-D cycles during evaluations of soil water retention curve (SWRC). The experimental measurements were carried out by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) for Ca(2+), Mg(2+) and K(+) on samples of three different Brazilian tropical soils (Geric Ferralsol, Eutric Nitosol and Rhodic Ferralsol).