New knowledge about the chemistry of soils often comes from studies in the laboratory, in which soil samples taken from undisturbed soil horizons in the field are used in experiments that include replicated treatments and controls.  In many cases, the soil samples are air dried at ambient temperatures (e.g., ) and sieved to a 2 mm size prior to storage for further study.  Such drying and sieving soil samples markedly disrupts soil structure, microbial population diversity, and chemical properties related to pH, oxidation-reduction status, manganese oxidation state, and dissolved organic matter; among other properties. Renewed interest in recent decades has led many soil chemists to maintain soil samples in a field-moist condition and stored at  under aerobic conditions before and during investigations.
Two approaches are frequently used in laboratory investigations in soil chemistry.  The first is known as batch equilibration.  The chemist adds a given volume of water or salt solution of known concentration of dissolved ions to a mass of soil (e.g., 25–mL of solution to 5–g of soil in a centrifuge tube or flask).  The soil slurry then is shaken or swirled for a given amount of time (e.g., 15 minutes to many hours) to establish a steady state or equilibrium condition prior to filtering or centrifuging at high speed to separate sand grains, silt particles, and clay colloids from the equilibrated solution.  The filtrate or centrifugate then is analyzed using one of several methods, including ion specific electrodes, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, ion chromatography, and colorimetric methods.  In each case, the analysis quantifies the concentration or activity of an ion or molecule in the solution phase, and by multiplying the measured concentration or activity (e.g., in mg ion/mL) by the solution-to-soil ratio (mL of extraction solution/g soil), the chemist obtains the result in mg ion/g soil. This result based on the mass of soil allows comparisons between different soils and treatments.  A related approach uses a known volume to solution to leach (infiltrate) the extracting solution through a quantity of soil in small columns at a controlled rate to simulate how rain, snow meltwater, and irrigation water pass through soils in the field.  The filtrate then is analyzed using the same methods as used in batch equilibrations.
Another approach to quantifying soil processes and phenomena uses in situ methods that do not disrupt the soil. as occurs when the soil is shaken or leached with an extracting soil solution.  These methods usually use surface spectroscopic techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and X-ray spectroscopy. These approaches aim to obtain information on the chemical nature of the mineralogy and chemistry of particle and colloid surfaces, and how ions and molecules are associated with such surfaces by adsorption, complexation, and precipitation.
These laboratory experiments and analyses have an advantage over field studies in that chemical mechanisms on how ions and molecules react in soils can be inferred from the data. One can draw conclusions or frame new hypotheses on similar reactions in different soils with diverse textures, organic matter contents, types of clay minerals and oxides, pH, and drainage condition.  Laboratory studies have the disadvantage that they lose some of  the realism and heterogeneity of undisturbed soil in the field, while gaining control and the power of extrapolation to unstudied soil. Mechanistic laboratory studies combined with more realistic, less controlled, observational field studies often yield accurate approximations of the behavior and chemistry of the soils that may be spatially heterogeneous and temporally variable.  Another challenge faced by soil chemists is how microbial populations and enzyme activity in field soils may be changed when the soil is disturbed, both in the field and laboratory, particularly when soils samples are dried prior to laboratory studies and analysis.