The only electrochemical property that serves to distinguish a submerged soil from a well drained soil is its redox potential. The redox potential of a soil or sediment provides a rapid, useful and semi-quantitative measure of its oxidation-reduction state. Two recent developments have stimulated interest in the chemistry of submerged soils: breeding lowland rice varieties with high yield potential and contaminating streams, lakes and seas by domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes. The chemistry of submerged soils is valuable:
(a) to understand soil problems, limit the yield of high yielding rice varieties, and
(b) to evaluate the role of sediments of lakes, estuaries, and oceans as reservoirs Of nutrients for aquatic plants and as sinks for land wastes.