DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dp8dr44
title: Data from: Making soil particle size analysis by laser diffraction compatible with standard soil texture determination methods

description: The standard sieving, pipette and hydrometer methods for soil particle
 size analysis (PSA) have three main drawbacks: procedures are tedious,
 time-consuming, and the results are protocol-dependent. Laser diffraction
 PSA delivers rapid results using standardized procedures, but so far it
 has been difficult to reconcile results with those from standard
 sedimentation methods. The objective of this study was to develop a
 protocol that would permit direct usage of laser diffraction PSA and
 render results compatible with current methods. The protocol was developed
 using 54 standard soil samples from different textural classes. Regression
 of the laser diffraction PSA against the hydrometer/pipette method yielded
 coefficients of determination of 0.92/0.9, 0.92/0.94 and 0.99/0.99, and
 root mean square errors of 0.04/0.05, 0.07/0.06 and 0.05/0.03 for clay,
 silt and sand, respectively. These statistics are comparable to those
 obtained by regressing results of the hydrometer against the sieve and
 pipette methods.A key factor in securing accurate and precise results was
 limiting the particle size range of the samples by wet sieving the sand
 fraction. This created representative samples and stable soil dispersed
 suspensions, allowing accurate estimations of particle size distribution
 for clay and silt fractions without empirical transformations. Results
 obtained with the proposed protocol matched those of standard
 sedimentation analyses for a wide range of soils, encouraging further
 adoption of laser diffraction for soil PSA.
description: Raw
 dataThis Microsoft Excel
 spreadsheet contains the raw data used in the preparation of the
 manuscript " MAKING SOIL PARTICLE SIZE ANALYSIS BY LASER DIFFRACTION
 COMPATIBLE WITH STANDARD SOIL TEXTURE DETERMINATION METHODS" Giovani
 Stefani Faé; Felipe Montes; Ekaterina Bazilevskaya; Rodrigo Masip Añó;
 Armen Kemanian doi: 10.2136/sssaj2018.10.0385; Date posted: May 04, 2019
 The data is presented in three spreadsheets: 1) Laser Diffraction-Sieving
 Data, 2) Sand Content, 3) Standard Data 1) Laser Diffraction-Sieving Data
 Contains the 101 bin sizes of the Mastersizer3000 particle size
 distribution, ranging from 0.01 μm to 3500 nμm. It also contains one
 column for each of the samples analyzed using the laser diffraction
 protocol; each column registers the fraction of the total number of
 particles analyzed in each bin size. Because the samples were wet sieved
 to 53μm, most of the columns (samples) have 0 in the bins corresponding to
 sizes larger than 51.9 (row 69). Nonetheless there are some samples that
 have a few particles greater than 53μm which corresponds to the physical
 process of passing the particles trough a nominal 53μm sieve. See Fernlund
 et al. (2007); Garboczi et al. (2017). Number of rows: 102 First row: Name
 of the columns Rows 2-102: Fraction of the total number of particles
 analyzed in each bin size expressed as percent (%) Number of Columns: 55
 First Column: Mastersizer 3000 bin sizes (μm) Columns 2-55: Samples
 analyzed in the completion of the manuscript 2) Sand Content Contains one
 column for each of the samples analyzed using the laser diffraction
 protocol; each column registers the dry weight of the sand that was
 captured in the 53μm sieve, and the fraction of the 5 g sample that this
 weight represents Number of rows: 3 First row: Name of the columns Row 2
 Dry weight (g) of the sand that was captured in the 53μm sieve Row 3
 Fraction of the 5 g sample that was retained in the 53μm sieve Number of
 Columns: 55 First Column: Row names Columns 2-55: Samples analyzed in the
 completion of the manuscript 3) Standard Data Hydrometer and Pipette
 results for each of the samples analyzed obtained from
 https://www.naptprogram.org/content/laboratory-results and
 https://collaborative-testing.com/program-1.php Number of rows: 55 First
 row: Name of the columns Rows 2-55 Samples analyzed in the completion of
 the manuscript Number of Columns: 7 First Column: Row names Columns 2-4:
 Percent Clay, Silt, Sand of each sample obtained using the Pipette method
 as reported Columns 5-7: Percent Clay, Silt, Sand of each sample obtained
 using the Hydrometer method as reportedDataSSSAJ_doi_10.2136_sssaj2018.10.0385.xlsx