SALSOLCHEMEC: an application to calculate the salt speciation in the soil solution and the exchange complex at equilibrium

 

SALSOLCHEMEC (SALine SOLution CHEMistry with Exchange Complex) is a computer program designed to calculate the salt speciation in the solution and the exchange complex at equilibrium at 25ºC of saline, calcareous and gypsiferous soils. SALSOLCHEMEC is based on an ionic association model for the sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, nitrate, sulfate, bicarbonate and carbonate ions. SALSOLCHEMEC carries out calculations of ionic speciation including the soil solution, the exchange complex and the mineral phases calcite and gypsum, and electrical conductivity at 25°C (EC25).

The essential steps for running the SALTIRSOIL model are described below.

SALSOLCHEMEC is copyrighted software by the author, distributed free for educational and research purposes and downloadable here.

The SALTIRSOIL_M model has featured several research articles which can be accessed from this page.

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Data base

The database SALSOLCHEMEC.mdb is distributed with the program and initially has five tables of input data: soil properties, thermodynamic constants, selectivity coefficients, ion parameters and coefficients for EC25 calculation. The results of the simulations are stored in tables whose general name begins with "Output_ Data_". The SALSOLCHEMEC.mdb database is distributed with all the necessary information, so the application is ready for immediate use.

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Running the simulations

We open the application and connect to the SALSOLCHEMEC.mdb by displaying the menu "File" and click on "Open" so that a dialog box appears from which we seek the database. When the connection is successful a message box will appear with the path to the database. To carry out the simulations we deployed the "File" menu and click on "Run". In the drop down lists we select the tables with all the necessary data for SALSOLCHEMEC to run.

Let's get started with SALSOLCHEMEC following these four steps:

                1. Click on the button below and and save the compressed zip file in your computer.
                2. Extract and save its content, which includes the database SALSOLCHEMEC.mdb.
                3. Install the program by clicking on the setup.exe file.
                4. Follow the instructions.

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Related publications:

  1. Prediction of the soil saturated paste extract salinity from extractable ions, cation exchange capacity, and anion exclusion (2012). Soil Research 50(7), pp. 536-550. doi: 10.1071/SR12197
  2. A combined equation to estimate the soil pore-water electrical conductivity: calibration with the WET and 5TE sensors (2014). Soil Research 52(5), pp. 419–430 doi: 10.1071/SR13331