Summary
Mire water chemical analysis data are presented to illustrate the fundamental importance of collecting samples from (a) the exact rooting depth of the plant species under investigation, (b) within 10 cm of a specific plant and (c) at a specified time of the year. These three pre-requisites are essential for meaningful comparisons of plant nutrient availability on either an intra or inter-site basis. Large variations in the concentrations of five cations and the specific conductivity of mire water samples, both with time of the year and horizontal distance, were recorded on all four mire sites investigated. These data clearly demonstrate that mire water sample collections which do not comply with the pre-requisites above are of limited value for comparative purposes, and may not even be relevant to the species or plant community under investigation. re]19730404
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Summerfield, R.J. The reliability of mire water chemical analysis data as an index of plant nutrient availability. Plant Soil 40, 97–106 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00011412
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00011412