Soil Cation Exchange Capacity Lab (2D Cross-Section)

Healthy soil is a nutrient battery: negatively charged clay and humus particles hold positively charged nutrient ions — calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium — in a swappable exchange layer, releasing them to plant roots while resisting leaching. This simulator renders that exchange layer as a 2D vertical cross-section: a field of clay platelets and humus particles studded with colored cation sites, pannable and zoomable like a real soil-pit photograph. Dial in clay content, organic matter percentage and pH to watch the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and base saturation readouts respond in real time — and watch the visible density of exchange sites scale with them — using the same additive model soil labs use, then trigger a rainfall event and watch the exchange selectivity series play out: weakly-held sodium and potassium sink out of the profile first while calcium stays anchored, exactly as it does in a real leaching field trial.