Does improving the accuracy of soil mapping by increasing sampling intensity assist with the identification of pre-European vegetation communities?

At a local scale, soil type is often the most important determinant of vegetation type, so a good knowledge of soils is critical for the identification of pre-European vegetation communities. We examined the importance of the sampling intensity of soil surveys to the identification of pre-European vegetation communities along the lower Peterson Creek catchment near Yungaburra, Queensland. We increased sampling intensity and mapped soils at a scale of approximately 1: 7000 and compared our maps to those from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines at a scale of 1: 50 000. We found that using the smaller scale soil map would have resulted in 38 % of our study area being identified as supporting a different classification or soil type from the larger scale map. This, in turn, meant that 9 to 23 % of the study areas would have been identified as supporting a different pre-European vegetation community. We concluded that this low percentage did not justify the expense of a detailed soil survey in our study area and make recommendations as to where ad hoc soil surveys should be targeted.