Soil aggregates: a scale to investigate the densities of metal and proton reactive sites of organic matter and clay phases in soil

Summary Determining site density of reactive sites of metals in the main soil phases remains a challenging task. This study aimed to show that densities of reactive sites in soil may be assessed by a fractionation procedure based on soil being spatially organized as aggregates. The method is described with copper as a model trace element and a common silty loam soil after applying a low energy fractionation method to maintain the integrity of soil aggregates. The reactivity of five soil size fractions (> 250, 250–63, 63–20, 20–2 and