Despite its importance in a wide variety of studies, accurate estimation of below-ground biomass and its distribution in the soil is notoriously difficult. Levillain et al. compare four different methods of sampling in a 6-year-old Eucalyptus plantation, taking into account the amount of labour involved. An auger coring method is found to be the most efficient for sampling fine root biomass, but labour-intensive full- and half-Voronoi trenches are required for accurate estimation of medium- and coarse-root biomass.
