Soil is a three‐phase system – solid, liquid, and gas – although the interface between colloid surfaces and solution is so important that the “surface phase” should probably be considered a fourth phase. The main component of the liquid phase is water, but it contains a number of dissolved materials: gases, soluble organic compounds, and simple inorganic salts. Larger amounts of some of these materials are adsorbed at surfaces and act as a reserve from which the solution can be replenished. When soil is saturated, some of the water is in wide pores that will eventually drain; this water is unlikely to be in equilibrium with the bulk of the soil. A number of definitions are possible, the simplest being “the soil solution is the aqueous liquid phase associated with the soil” (2000). Of more interest in a chemical context is Sposito's (1989) definition: “the aqueous liquid phase in whose composition is influenced by flows of matter and energy between it and its surroundings and by the...
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Gupta, R.K. et al. (2008). Soil Solution. In: Chesworth, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3995-9_555
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