New Paper - Evaluating soil sampling devices at Gnarrenburger Moor

Determination of soil organic carbon stocks in peat soils requires the accurate assessment of bulk density, which is commonly undertaken by measuring the oven-dry weight of a volume-based sample. Sample rings (steel cylinders) are widely used but cannot be taken in deep peat layer. Thus, sampling needs to be performed with other sampling devices. Here, we evaluated the accuracy and precision of different sampling devices in determining bulk density and total peat masses of the entire peat profiles down to mineral soil at one bog peat site and one fen peat site. The results showed that volume-based sampling with high accuracies and low systematic errors is possible, but several sampling devices need to be combined within one peat profile to cover various field conditions (e.g. peat properties, depth of the peat profile).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.116132