What are the benefits of composite sampling?
Composite sampling can improve spatial or temporal coverage of an area without increasing sample number. Depending on the scale of sampling and objectives, composite sampling can provide more information about average contaminant concentration over space or time. With an appropriately adjusted contaminant benchmark, composite sampling can increase the ability to detect hot spots by increasing the number of locations sampled. Composite sampling can provide more representative estimates of mean concentrations than could be achieved by the same number of discrete samples. Composite sampling may provide more accurate exposure point concentrations for certain receptors in certain habitats. For the same size area, composite sampling can reduce sampling cost.
