The interest of soil Laboratories in Brazil in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) instead of titrimetry is on the rise due to the possibility of simultaneous determination of different metals within a wide range of concentrations in extracts of agronomic interest. This study compared: precision, reproducibility and accuracy of both techniques for exchangeable Ca, Mg and Al determination extracted with KCl 1 mol L-1 from tropical soil samples. Fifteen reference soil samples were analyzed. Ca, Mg and Al concentrations determined by titrimetry and ICP OES were most reproducible and precise when the extracts were not diluted. The techniques differed statistically (p < 0.05) by the identity test applied to compare concentrations of Ca, Mg and Al. The determination of Ca, Mg and Al in soil samples by ICP OES is not recommended under the tested conditions.
ICP OES; titrimetry; exchangeable cations and identity test
