Summary
This European interlaboratory comparison study examined the reproducibility of soil water retention curve measurements across 14 laboratories using artificially constructed reference samples. The analysis revealed that interlaboratory variability was substantially greater than intralaboratory variability, with performance differing markedly between laboratories. The authors conclude that harmonisation and standardisation of measurement procedures are necessary to ensure the quality of soil water retention databases and derivative products such as pedotransfer functions and soil property maps.
UK applicability
UK laboratories contributing to or using soil water retention curve databases should be aware of this evidence for procedural variability and its downstream effects on soil hydrological property prediction. The findings underscore the need for adoption of standardised measurement protocols to improve the reliability of soil databases used in UK environmental and agricultural research.
Key measures
Soil water retention curve measurements at matric potentials between 10 and 300 hPa; interlaboratory variability; intralaboratory variability; sample-to-sample variability quantified via Bayesian linear mixed models
Outcomes reported
The study quantified inter- and intralaboratory variability in measurements of the wet portion of the soil water retention curve (10–300 hPa) across 14 European laboratories using standardised reference samples. It identified that interlaboratory variability was the dominant source of measurement differences, with considerable variation in intralaboratory reproducibility depending on the laboratory.
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