An Evaluation of the Loss-on-Ignition Method for Determining the Soil Organic Matter Content of Calcareous Soils

ABSTRACTThe Loss-on-Ignition (LOI) method is widely employed for measuring the organic matter (OM) content of soil samples. There is a risk of carbonate losses when calcareous soil samples are analyzed through LOI, but this has never been investigated in detail. Moreover, a worldwide standard protocol for determining the carbonate content of soils is not available. The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate two commonly employed carbonate analysis procedures using calcareous and non-calcareous soil samples: the gravimetric method with (GMF) and without (GM) the addition of the antioxidant iron(II) chloride (FeCl2) and the acetic acid dissolution procedure (AAD); (ii) to evaluate the effect of ignition temperature on losses of pure calcite, calcite-quartz and calcareous soil samples. We found that the average apparent carbonate content of the non-calcareous soils was greatest for the GMF method followed by the AAD procedure. The GM method showed the smallest apparent carbonate contents. For the calcite-qu...