Spatial particle size distribution at intact sample surfaces of a Dystric Cambisol under forest use

The idea of the present study is to describe the spatially varying particle size distribution (PSD) along intact aggregate surfaces with the laser diffraction method (LDM) of four silty-loamy and OC enriched horizons of a Dystric Cambisol from the Uhlířská catchment (Czech Republic) with the laser diffraction method (LDM). Besides, the comparability of the LDM with the sieve and pipette method (SPM), the reproducibility, and the effect of pretreatment on the particle size distribution derived by LDM were analysed.

The laser diffraction method enables rapid and continuous particle size distribution measurements with required sample amounts of 0.1–0.2 g for each measurement compared to 5–20 g for SPM. The LDM-derived PSD’s can be directly compared with the standardised SPM-derived PSD’s by using regression analysis with coefficients of determination (r²) between 0.83 and 0.93. Sample pretreatment following standardised proceedings indicates a better comparability between the particle size distributions of both methods. Besides, the highest coefficients of variation of up to 78.6 and therefore the lowest reproducibility were found for the unpretreated PSD of the AE and Bs horizon. Thus, limited evaluability and reproducibility of soil material enriched in organic carbon (OC), used in the current study, needs further analysis.

For spatial analysis of PSD’s along intact surfaces of soil aggregates and profiles, spatial data interpolation by inverse distance weighting (IDW), kriging, and triangulated irregular networks (TIN) can be used for detailed measuring, mapping, and spatial extension of the sand, silt, and clay fractions at unsampled locations using a set of samples of known locations. The information offers the possibility of comparing and verifying data obtained by non-invasive mid-infrared spectroscopy and Vis–NIR spectroscopy by spatial extension for given soil aggregates and profiles.