Abstract
A sampling proficiency test is evaluated to analyze the influence of soil heterogeneity and sampling parameters on sampling error of nutrient contents. The influence of parameters on sampling error was assessed by multiple linear regression, regression tree analysis, and variance component analysis (VCA). Error was governed mainly by heterogeneity. Among sampling parameters, the number of increment samples had the largest influence. VCA revealed that the component between sampling repetitions was larger than the component between samplers. This suggests a predominance of heterogeneity for the influence on sampling error, increasing with field-scale heterogeneity. Sampling patterns of low complexity seemed sufficient for the homogeneous field, whereas sampling performance was enhanced by more complex sampling pattern on fields of intermediate and high heterogeneity. Overall, the results suggest that sampling error on arable fields sampled with simplified sampling schemes is often determined by soil heterogeneity and to a lesser degree by sampling parameters.
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