Summary
This interlaboratory comparison assessed the reproducibility of soil water retention curve measurements across 14 European laboratories using artificially constructed reference samples. The authors found that interlaboratory variability was the primary source of measurement differences, substantially exceeding intralaboratory variability, which varied considerably between laboratories depending on their specific methods and procedures. The results highlight that non-harmonised and non-standardised measurement procedures significantly compromise the quality of soil water retention databases and derived pedotransfer functions or soil maps.
UK applicability
UK laboratories contributing to or using soil water retention data should be aware that methodological inconsistencies across European laboratories—likely including UK institutions—may introduce substantial variability into pooled databases. Alignment with harmonised and standardised measurement procedures would improve data quality for UK soil property assessments and hydrological modelling.
Key measures
Interlaboratory variability, intralaboratory variability, sample-to-sample variability, soil water retention curve measurements, Bayesian linear mixed models
Outcomes reported
The study quantified inter- and intralaboratory variability in measuring the wet part of the soil water retention curve (10–300 hPa) across 14 European laboratories using standardised reference samples. It identified that interlaboratory variability exceeded intralaboratory variability, with substantial differences in reproducibility depending on laboratory practices.
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