CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

Auger sampling, in-growth cores and pin board methods

Export citation

This chapter outlines those methods for assessing root systems structure and function in the field which are based on washing roots free from the soil in which they grew. Some of these methods are included in previous reviews (Kolesnikov 1971; Böhm 1979). The methods are either disruptive or totally destructive to the root system being studied and to the immediate environment (Taylor et al. 1991).

Related publications