European Journal of Soil Science最新文献

{"title":"Soil Organic Carbon Prediction Using an Efficient Channel Attention-Enhanced CNN-LSTM Model With LUCAS Spectral Library","authors":"Haoyu Wang,&nbsp;Qian Sun,&nbsp;Xin Niu,&nbsp;Kexin Liu,&nbsp;Jiayi Zhang,&nbsp;Zhengzheng Hao,&nbsp;Dongyun Xu","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70202","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70202","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Visible near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (Vis–NIR) has been widely used in soil organic carbon (SOC) prediction due to its rapid, cost-effective, and non-destructive characteristics. Numerous soil spectral libraries have been used for SOC prediction. However, the growing volume of Vis–NIR spectral data has amplified its complexity, high dimensionality, and nonlinearity, creating significant challenges for traditional analytical models, particularly in terms of feature extraction, prediction accuracy, and generalisation capacity. To address these limitations, we developed a novel hybrid deep learning model that synergistically combines an enhanced convolutional neural network (CNN), a long short-term memory (LSTM) network, and an efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanism, termed the CNN-LSTM-ECA model. The CNN-LSTM-ECA model was evaluated using the LUCAS spectral library. Additionally, the SOC prediction performance of the CNN-LSTM-ECA model was compared against that of the CNN and CNN-LSTM models. To further assess the predictive performance of the model, spectral data specific to France were extracted from the library for validation. The results show that the CNN-LSTM-ECA model significantly outperforms the CNN and CNN-LSTM models in SOC content prediction. Specifically, the proposed model achieved remarkable prediction accuracy with an <i>R</i>² of 0.92 and an RMSE of 25.07 g kg⁻¹ on the validation, representing significant improvements of 10.72% and 7.15% in RMSE compared to the CNN (RMSE = 28.08 g kg⁻¹) and CNN-LSTM (RMSE = 27.00 g kg⁻¹) models, respectively. The model's generalisation capability was further confirmed through additional testing on the French dataset, where it maintained consistent predictive performance (<i>R</i>² = 0.93, RMSE = 24.83 g kg⁻¹). These findings underscore the model's high prediction accuracy and robust generalisation across diverse datasets. This study illustrates that the CNN-LSTM-ECA model significantly improves both accuracy and generalisation in SOC prediction, thereby providing a promising approach for spectral data analysis.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145077457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental and Geochemical Controls on Acid Sulfate Soil Formation Along the Southern Baltic Sea Coast","authors":"Piotr Hulisz,&nbsp;Adam Michalski,&nbsp;Michał Dąbrowski","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70198","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70198","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study investigates the environmental and geochemical controls on forming and transforming acid sulfate (AS) soils along the southern Baltic Sea coast. Field surveys and laboratory analyses were conducted on a series of coastal soil transects located in hydrologically dynamic environments, including abrasive terraces/beaches, micro-cliffs/beach ridges, and organic-rich depressions. The results revealed a high site-specific variability in AS soil properties driven by topographic position, hydrological regime, and sedimentary history. <i>Hypersulfidic</i> materials, indicative of sulfide accumulation under reducing conditions, were found across all geomorphological settings. Geochemical indicators such as field pH, total organic carbon to total sulfur ratio, chloride, and calcium carbonate content proved effective in assessing the soil variability, including acidification potential. Magnetic susceptibility measurements indicated a predominantly natural origin of potentially toxic elements and the absence of technogenic contamination. However, under changing redox conditions, particularly in carbonate-poor soils, the mobilisation of toxic elements such as chromium, nickel, lead, and zinc cannot be excluded, despite their generally low concentrations. Organic matter, derived from both autochthonous and allochthonous sources, played a key role in sulfidisation processes, although the influence of its humification degree on acidification risk remains unclear. Overall, the study highlights the importance of localised environmental controls in AS soil development and provides a methodological framework for identifying similar systems in other coastal plains of the Baltic Sea.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Compositional Data Methods and VISNIRS to Predict Soil Organic Carbon Contents","authors":"José A. Cayuela-Sánchez,&nbsp;Rafael López-Núñez","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70200","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70200","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soil organic carbon (SOC) content plays an important role in modulating atmospheric CO₂. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (VISNIRS) has been proven to be a suitable method for SOC prediction in the laboratory. However, several soil properties such as soil moisture (SM), bulk density, compactness, texture, and temperature affect the near-infrared spectra obtained under field conditions. Among these factors, SM variation is the most significant challenge for SOC measurement. Soil is a composition of fractions, especially minerals and organic matter, whose contents are expressed in relative and interdependent quantities, belonging to simplex spaces. These are known as compositional data (CoDa) and require specific mathematical methods. This study proposes methods to predict SOC along with other soil components, rather than using solely one soil feature. Several predictive models using VISNIRS by considering different soil compositions were evaluated. All models included SM to mitigate its interference in SOC prediction, which would otherwise occur when using only VISNIRS-based methods. The analyzed soil components included soil organic matter (SOM, calculated as SOM = 1.724 × SOC), SM, soil inorganic carbon (SIC), and the textural fractions: “Clay,” “Silt,” and the remainder of the soil sample classified as “Other.” The 4-parts model including the clay content provided SOM prediction with Lin's concordance correlation coefficient = 0.84 and Pearson <i>r</i> = 0.87. Important is to note that the predictions stated with the different CoDa approaches showed similar trends, from the 6-Parts to the 2-Parts compositions, this fact highlighting the consistency of the method. The performance of all the CoDa models obtained, and in particular the 4-part “Clay” model, was superior to that obtained with the traditional PLS calibration. The results highlighted that CoDa methods for estimating SOM or SOC provided an improvement over traditional partial least square (PLS) calibration. Future software solutions could integrate routines for using these methods in the field.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70200","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil Health, Crop Yield and Carbon Footprint Trade-Offs Between Conservation and Conventional Farming: A Case Study","authors":"Christoph Rosinger,&nbsp;Golo Gotthalmseder,&nbsp;Gernot Bodner,&nbsp;Katharina M. Keiblinger,&nbsp;Stefan J. Forstner,&nbsp;Taru Sandén,&nbsp;Giacomo Ferretti,&nbsp;Moltinë Prebibaj,&nbsp;Reinhard W. Neugschwandtner,&nbsp;Hans-Peter Kaul","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70194","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70194","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Transitioning towards soil health-oriented farming systems is fundamental to mitigate future challenges such as climate change, soil degradation, and increasing global food demands. In this study, we evaluated soil health, crop yields, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a long-term experimental site in Central Europe that comprised two cropping systems: a conventional system with regular tillage, low-diversity crop rotation, and minimal cover cropping, and a conservation system with shallow tillage, diverse crop rotation, and extensive cover cropping. We assessed soil health using 13 physico-chemical and biological parameters, calculated field-scale GHG emissions, and analysed yield dynamics over an eight-year period to evaluate potential crop yield penalties under conservation farming. We observed significant soil health advances (+7%) and reductions in GHG emissions (−43%) with conservation farming, while crop yields for all cultivated crops remained stable. Improvements in soil health were particularly pronounced for nitrogen cycling and microbial-driven processes. For several measured soil health parameters, we found a larger effect of crop species compared to farming system. Further, positive management effects on soil were apparent particularly for winter wheat and to a lesser extent for maize and sugar beet, strongly emphasizing the need for standardized soil health assessments that take crop species into account. Our study demonstrates that easily implementable conservation farming measures such as reduced tillage, increased crop diversity, and enhanced cover cropping can substantially improve soil health and long-term agricultural sustainability without compromising crop yields. Conservation farming thus emerges as a viable strategy to support resilient crop production in temperate regions.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70194","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145038055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"FeOx-Driven Soil Aggregation Boosts MAOC Accumulation and POC Protection in Subtropical Mixed Conifer–Broadleaf Forests","authors":"Zhengui Han,&nbsp;Yunchao Zhou,&nbsp;Yingli Guo,&nbsp;Han Liu,&nbsp;Qianbin Cao","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70197","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70197","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The conversion of pure coniferous plantations to coniferous–broadleaf mixed forests increases the organic carbon (OC) content of soil and aggregates; however, the mechanisms of OC retention through soil aggregation remain inadequately understood. We selectively removed Fe oxides and OC from soil of both poorly aggregated (pure coniferous plantation) and well aggregated (mixed forest) soil systems. The mechanism of particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) sequestration in Fe oxide soil aggregation under broadleaf transformation was studied. The removal of Fe oxides broke the macroaggregates into microaggregates and &lt; silt + clay fractions and revealed the attachment and entanglement effects of plant residues encapsulated by macroaggregates on soil particles, whereas plant residue decomposition maximised the degree of macroaggregate fragmentation (64.8%–100%). These results indicate that POC self-isolates and that the presence of Fe oxides further enhances POC physical occlusion during soil aggregation. The extent of this physical protection provided by Fe oxides follows the order: free Fe (Fe_D) &gt; amorphous Fe (Fe_O) &gt; complex Fe (Fe_P). Specifically, Fe_O and Fe_P promote macroaggregate formation through organic–inorganic complexes (MAOC formation) to enhance POC physical occlusion, whereas Fe_D predominantly forms inorganic–inorganic complexes. Microaggregate formation and MAOC accumulation occurred simultaneously through organic–inorganic interactions with various Fe oxide forms. These processes enhanced soil aggregation and were accompanied by significant accumulation of POC (80.2%–169.8%) and MAOC (41.1%–137.3%) after stand conversion (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). These findings indicate that improved soil aggregation capacity mediated by Fe oxides during forest conversion promotes POC and MAOC accumulation through distinct Fe oxide-specific aggregation mechanisms.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145037782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction to “SoilManageR—An R Package for Deriving Soil Management Indicators to Harmonise Agricultural Practice Assessments”","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70191","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70191","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Heller, O., A. Chervet, F. Durand-Maniclas, et al. 2025. “SoilManageR—An R Package for Deriving Soil Management Indicators to Harmonise Agricultural Practice Assessments.” <i>European Journal of Soil Science</i> 76: e70102. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70102.</p><p>The error was limited to the manuscript and did not occur in the underlying calculations and the software package. Therefore, the correction of Equation (3) does not affect any of the presented data, results or interpretations.</p><p>We apologize for this error.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70191","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145035373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainable and Resilient Agroecosystems Need Complexity of Soil Food Webs and Multivariate Soil Health Indicators","authors":"Jennifer Michel,&nbsp;Iñaki Balanzategui-Guijarro,&nbsp;Da Cao,&nbsp;Philippe Hinsinger,&nbsp;Jacques Le Gouis,&nbsp;Jordi Moya-Laraño,&nbsp;Sara Sánchez-Moreno,&nbsp;Sarah Symanczik,&nbsp;Hervé Vanderschuren,&nbsp;Dominique Van Der Straeten,&nbsp;Matthias Waibel,&nbsp;Markus Weinmann,&nbsp;Cécile Thonar,&nbsp;Pierre Delaplace","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70192","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70192","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We need to adapt crop species and agricultural practices to produce high quantities of quality food for a growing world population, while also reducing the negative impact of agriculture on the environment to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement. It is increasingly recognised that healthy soils are at the heart of this endeavour, sustaining global geochemical cycles and the productivity of most terrestrial ecosystems. This ability of soils to support essential ecosystem services like nutrient cycling arises from diverse communities of soil organisms. Many ecosystem services are a function of how these soil organisms interact with each other, with the aboveground plant species and with the physio-chemical soil matrix. Here, we argue that multiple ecosystem processes and climate change resilience rely on diverse plant and soil communities with complex interactions among various actors carrying out complementary functions, rather than on individual indicator species on their own. We highlight areas of research which could be expanded to advance our understanding from single-species studies to the functional complexity of soil food webs and its integration into land management strategies with the aim to improve the resilience and sustainability of essential terrestrial ecosystems and the services they provide to the human population.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145035375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Scientific Indicators and Stakeholders' Perceptions on Soil Threats in France: How Do They Compare?","authors":"Eloise Mason,&nbsp;Sophie Cornu,&nbsp;Claire Froger,&nbsp;Nicolas P. A. Saby,&nbsp;Claire Chenu","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70190","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70190","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soils are under multiple threats, with varying levels of intensity and nature across different areas. It is therefore important to assess the soil threat level. To do so, scientific indicators have been developed, but their implementation at the country level can be challenging. As stakeholders have good knowledge of soil conditions, stakeholders' perceptions on soil threats could be used as a complementary indicator. The objective of this paper is to explore this possibility focusing on the five soil threats considered by stakeholders as the most important at the European level: erosion, artificialisation, compaction, soil organic carbon (SOC) loss and contamination. A participatory stakeholder consultation conducted in France in 2021 yielded 1444 responses. We elaborated stakeholders' perception maps at the departmental scale, which we compared with scientific indicator maps per soil threat. Our findings indicate that stakeholders consider artificialisation the most important soil threat in France. The spatial distribution of soil threats based on stakeholders' perceptions and scientific indicators matches in 43% of the departments for SOC loss, and in over half of the departments for erosion (50%), compaction (51%), artificialisation (63%) and contamination (74%). The differences can be attributed to higher stakeholders' perception compared to scientific indicators for erosion, SOC loss and contamination. Conversely, for artificialisation and compaction, these differences can be attributed to lower stakeholders' perception than the scientific indicators. Moreover, certain scientific indicators assess the threat only partially, whereas stakeholders may perceive the threat differently or as a whole. When biases in the scientific assessment, stakeholders' perception or comparison are taken into consideration, stakeholders' perceptions can be used as a tool to complement existing scientific indicators.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70190","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145035374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of Physicochemical Properties on Soil Water Vapour Sorption Kinetics","authors":"Zizheng Deng,&nbsp;Chong Chen,&nbsp;Xue Song,&nbsp;Jianying Shang,&nbsp;Hu Zhou","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70195","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70195","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Soil water vapour sorption kinetics is of great significance to understanding the soil water cycle and soil water vapour movement in arid areas. However, the differences and influencing factors of soil water vapour sorption kinetics in different adsorption processes are still not completely clear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the soil water vapour adsorption/desorption rates (<i>R</i>_a/<i>R</i>_d) for various water activity (<i>a</i>_w) levels and to identify the key factors affecting these rates. In this study, we determined the change of <i>R</i>_a and <i>R</i>_d with <i>a</i>_w and the <i>R</i>_a and <i>R</i>_d during the monolayer adsorption (<i>a</i>_w = 0.05–0.02, <i>R</i>_a0 and <i>R</i>_d0), multilayer adsorption (<i>a</i>_w = 0.2–0.6, <i>R</i>_am and <i>R</i>_dm), and condensation (<i>a</i>_w = 0.6–0.93, <i>R</i>_ac and <i>R</i>_dc) processes for eight mineral soils with different clay contents and mineralogies using a fully-automated AquaLab Vapour Sorption Analyser in dynamic dewpoint isotherm (DDI) mode. Across the entire <i>a</i>_w range, the <i>R</i>_a varied from 2.18 × 10⁻⁵ to 1.85 × 10⁻⁴ g g⁻¹ min⁻¹, and the <i>R</i>_d varied from 2.23 × 10⁻⁵ to 3.93 × 10⁻⁴ g g⁻¹ min⁻¹. The adsorption rate was in the order of <i>R</i>_a0 &gt; <i>R</i>_am&gt;<i>R</i>_ac, and the desorption rate was in the order of <i>R</i>_dc&gt;<i>R</i>_dm &gt; <i>R</i>_d0. The ratios of adsorption and desorption rates <i>R</i>_a0/<i>R</i>_d0, <i>R</i>_am/<i>R</i>_dm, and <i>R</i>_ac/<i>R</i>_dc are 2.82, 0.97, and 0.48, respectively. The monolayer adsorption rate exceeded its desorption rate, while multilayer adsorption exhibited comparable kinetics to desorption. Adsorption kinetics during capillary condensation exhibited significant retardation compared to desorption dynamics. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) and total specific surface area (SSA) were significant determinants of adsorption–desorption kinetic parameters (<i>R</i>_a0, <i>R</i>_d0, <i>R</i>_am, <i>R</i>_dm, and <i>R</i>_ac), whereas pore volume (PV) and clay content showed no statistically significant correlation with these kinetic metrics. In contrast, clay content, external SSA, and PV emerged as key factors affecting the <i>R</i>_ac, while CEC and total SSA exhibited negligible influence on this parameter.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145035376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Manual Sample Dosing Techniques on Soil Particle Size Distribution Measured via Laser Diffraction","authors":"Stanislav Paseka","doi":"10.1111/ejss.70196","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ejss.70196","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Accurate determination of the soil particle size distribution (PSD) is critical for a wide range of environmental, agronomic, and geotechnical applications. Laser diffraction method (LDM) has gained popularity because of its speed and reproducibility; however, it remains sensitive to sample preparation and introduction methods. This study evaluated the impact of three manual dosing techniques on PSD results obtained via laser diffraction for seven USDA-classified soil types, with the pipette method used as a reference. Each technique (A: pipetted suspension; B: semiliquid paste; C: dried material) was applied to 1050 measurements. The results revealed a systematic underestimation of clay and overestimation of silt fractions across all LDM techniques, with Technique A yielding the highest relative standard deviation (average RSD for clay: 16.8%; sand: 26.9%). Techniques B and C showed markedly better repeatability (clay RSDs: 7.1% and 10.2%, respectively), with silt exhibiting the highest measurement precision overall (mean RSD: 6.7%). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed that the choice of dosing technique significantly affected the measured clay fraction (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), whereas no statistically significant differences were found for silt or sand. All the laser-based techniques misclassified the soil texture in the USDA triangle, with most samples shifting to silt-dominated groups regardless of the true origin. These findings highlight that while LDM itself introduces systematic biases in PSD estimation, the choice of manual dosing technique—particularly uncontrolled suspension pipetting (Technique A)—further amplifies measurement variability, rendering it unsuitable for high-precision applications. These findings highlight the strong influence of manual dosing on LDM outcomes and confirm the unsuitability of uncontrolled suspension pipetting (Technique A) in precision analysis. Recommendations are provided for standardized manual procedures that can improve reproducibility and classification accuracy in soil laboratories.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"76 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.70196","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145035372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}