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

The 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...