An improved analytical procedure for determination of total actual acidity (TAA) in acid sulfate soils

An improved analytical procedure is proposed for the determination of total actual acidity (TAA) in acid sulfate soils. The proposed method involves the use of a superior extracting solution, 0.5 M BaCl2, instead of the 1 M NaCl used by Konsten et al. (Konsten CJM, Brinkman R, Andriesse W. A field laboratory method to determine total potential and actual acidity in acid sulfate soils. In: Dost H, editor. Selected papers of the Dakar Symposium on Acid Sulfate Soils. Wageningen: ILRI Publication 44, 1988:106–134.) and improved experimental design to obtain correction factors for calculating TAA. The introduction of a multi-choice procedure also enables increased accuracy of analytical results to be obtained if more accurate TAA estimation is required.