AbstractSoil columns containing either Yolo silty clay loam or Hanford sandy loam were prepared with vertically nonuniform salt (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl‐) and moisture distributions and with gypsum (CaSO4 · 2H2O) present in the surface soil. The columns were irrigated at both fast and slow rates of water application with a water containing Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Cl‐. A simple method for calculating salt movement in soils successfully approximated the resultant salt profiles.A variation in the salt movement computation method was devised for calculating the leaching required to lower the salinity of a particular soil depth to less than a specified value. The method was experimentally verified on both a Yolo and a Hanford soil column, each with vertically nonuniform initial salt and moisture distributions.
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