The relative ability of soils to store one particular group of nutrients, the cations, is referred to as cation exchange capacity or CEC. Soils are composed of a mixture of sand, silt, clay and ...
Ideal soils for agriculture are balanced in contributions from mineral components (sand: 0.05–2 mm, silt: 0.002–0.05 mm, clay: 0.002 mm), soil organic matter (SOM), air, and water. The ...