Interpretation of humic acid coagulation and soluble soil organic matter using a calculated electrostatic potential

The coagulation of humic substances and its role in controlling the solubility of organic matter in soils are not well understood. We therefore studied the physico‐chemical behaviour of purified humic acid from forest soil coagulated with Na, Ca, Cu, Al at pH 4 and 6, and then modelled the behaviour with the Non‐Ideal Consistent Competitive Adsorption Donnan (NICA‐Donnan) model. We found that the coagulation of humic acid occurs when the Donnan potential is less negative than ?0.08 V. Based on this result, an empirical relation between the Donnan potential of humic acid and its concentration in solution was derived. In addition, the Donnan potential of the dissolved organic matter in the soil solution of six soil profiles from forests was calculated using the NICA‐Donnan model under the assumption that all the dissolved organic matter behaves as humic acid. The measured concentration of dissolved organic matter also decreases in a soil profile, as the calculated potential becomes less negative. The results are in many cases in semi‐quantitative agreement with the predicted concentration based on the humic acid coagulation experiment. Acid soils contain more dissolved organic matter, which may result from the presence of a fairly large fraction of more soluble organic molecules, such as fulvic acid.