saltSeverity {soilassessment}

A function to classify salt intensity in soil

Description

This function classifies salt intensity in soil based on EC, pH and ESP levels

Usage

saltSeverity(ec,ph,esp,criterion="FAO")

Arguments

ec

electrical conductivity in dS/m of saturated soil paste extract or its equivalent

ph

soil reaction (pH)

esp

Exchangeable sodium percent

criterion

classification method for severity/degree of salt problems. FAO, USDA, Amrhein, and PSALT criteria are included. Default method is FAO.

Details

This function requires input EC, pH and ESP values to process the classification. They can be maps or numerical entries. PSALT criterion uses percent salt content instead of EC.

Value

Integer classes of ranging between 1-17. The names of integer codes are obtained using classCode function

Note

The function strictly requires input EC, pH, and ESP. Percent salt content can be used in place of EC if the criterion is PSALT

Author(s)

Christian Thine Omuto

References

Abrol, IP, Yadav JSP, Massoud FI. 1988. Salt-affected soils and their management. FAO Soils Bulletin 39. FAO, Rome

Amrhein C. 1996. Australian sodic soils: Distribution, properties, and management. Soil Science 161. pp412.

FAO. 2006. Guidelines for soil description. FAO, Rome

Richards LA. 1954. Diagnosis and improvements of saline and alkali soils. Agriculture Handbook No. 60. USDA, Washington

See Also

saltClass, saltRating, classCode

Examples

library(sp)
saltSeverity(4.5,7.8,11.6,"USDA")
ec=suitabinput["ec"]
ph=suitabinput["ph"]
soc=nutrindicator["soc"]
clay=textureinput["clay"]
texture=suitabinput["texture"]
newmap=ec
newmap$ph=ph$ph-1
newmap$ECe=ECconversion1(ec$ec*0.25,texture$texture,"FAO","1:5",soc$soc,clay$clay)
newmap$salt=saltSeverity(newmap$ECe,newmap$ph,6.84,"FAO")
newmap$salineclass=classCode(newmap$salt,"saltseverity")
spplot(newmap["salineclass"], main="Salinity Code")