Soil Potassium

AUS-TMI-LVG-SOK General Moderate confidence

Benchmark Value

160 mg/kg

Direction: Higher is desirable ↑

Form: Point

Scoring Curve

Scoring curve unavailable

The scoring engine could not generate a curve for this benchmark context. The primary form is Point, but the benchmark data may be missing required fields (e.g., optimal range bounds for an OptimalRange benchmark). This is typically a data quality issue in the benchmark pipeline.

Evidence & Context

The 'best-on-offer' reference values are proposed for different soil textures. For sandy/silty loams, the value is 160 mg/kg.

Metric Definition:

Soil potassium concentration measured by Colwell K test at 0-10 cm soil depth

Benchmark Definition:

This benchmark represents the optimal soil potassium level for sandy/silty loam soils in tropical and subtropical maritime island pastures, supporting legume content and pasture productivity.

Justification:

This value supports high legume content and robust pasture productivity while maintaining a safe margin below levels that induce metabolic disease in livestock.

Sources (1)

Pastures: Mackay Whitsunday region - FutureBeef, accessed July 18, 2025, Journal

Pastures: Mackay Whitsunday region - FutureBeef, accessed July 18, 2025,

View Source

Context

Region Australia
Biome Tropical & Subtropical Maritime Islands
Land Use Livestock Grazing & Pasture
Assessment Not Stated
Evidence Type ReferenceCondition

Lifecycle

Status Active
Version 1
Effective From 1 Jun 2026

Notes

Lower Critical Threshold: 120 mg/kg. Upper Detrimental Threshold: 250 mg/kg. The lower critical threshold for sandy/silty loams is <120 mg/kg, and the upper detrimental threshold is >250 mg/kg. AssessmentContext defaulted to 'Not Stated' because the source document did not state one.

Related Benchmarks

Other benchmarks in the AUS-TMI-LVG-SOK family.