Testing a new sampler for measuring plot soil loss

In order to measure soil loss in equipped plots the estimate of the weight of solid material intercepted at their lower end is required. At the experimental area of Sparacia, Sicily, the runoff produced by an erosive event is collected within storage tanks with a capacity of about 1 m³. In this paper, the use of a new sampler is proposed to measure easily the weight of solid material eroded from an experimental plot and collected into a storage tank. The sampler is a cylinder having a closing valve at the bottom. Two different series of runs were carried out both to test the reliability of the sampler and to establish a sampling procedure, respectively. An analysis of various sampling configurations usable in the field differentiated by the number and location of sampling verticals in the tank cross‐section was finally carried out. The results of the present investigation are that the concentration measurement by the sampler was more accurate than that obtained by other methods involving a collection tank, agitation and sampling of the suspension. This sampler is cheap and usable in combination with a quick field sampling procedure which is particularly advisable when the number of plots equipped at an experimental area is large. The sampler was tested using a clay soil contained within cylinders and a cubic tank, but it appeared also to be usable with coarser sediment than clay and in combination with tanks having a different shape. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.