Moreira C. S. auteur aut IRD Brunet Didier auteur aut IRD Verneyre L. auteur aut IRD Sà S. M. O. auteur aut IRD Galdos M. V. auteur aut IRD Cerri C. C. auteur aut IRD Bernoux Martial auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access P>Soil bulk density values are needed to convert organic carbon content to mass of organic carbon per unit area. However, field sampling and measurement of soil bulk density are labour-intensive, costly and tedious. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is a physically non-destructive, rapid, reproducible and low-cost method that characterizes materials according to their reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region. The aim of this paper was to investigate the ability of NIRS to predict soil bulk density and to compare its performance with published pedotransfer functions. The study was carried out on a dataset of 1184 soil samples originating from a reforestation area in the Brazilian Amazon basin, and conventional soil bulk density values were obtained with metallic "core cylinders". The results indicate that the modified partial least squares regression used on spectral data is an alternative method for soil bulk density predictions to the published pedotransfer functions tested in this study. The NIRS method presented the closest-to-zero accuracy error (-0.002 g cm-3) and the lowest prediction error (0.13 g cm-3) and the coefficient of variation of the validation sets ranged from 8.1 to 8.9% of the mean reference values. Nevertheless, further research is required to assess the limits and specificities of the NIRS method, but it may have advantages for soil bulk density predictions, especially in environments such as the Amazon forest. specialized 068 60 5 785-791 2009 1351-0754 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048171 10.1111/j.1365-2389.2009.01170.x 1351-0754 [F B010048171] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048171 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2009/09/010048171.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2009-10-07 2017-08-23 fdi:010048171 fre