This monograph provides, for the first time, a most comprehensive statistical account of composite sampling as an ingenious environmental sampling method to help accomplish observational economy in a variety of environmental and ecological studies. Sampling consists of selection, acquisition, and quantification of a part of the population. But often what is desirable is not affordable, and what is affordable is not adequate. How do we deal with this dilemma? Operationally, composite sampling recognizes the distinction between selection, acquisition, and quantification. In certain applications, it is a common experience that the costs of selection and acquisition are not very high, but the cost of quantification, or measurement, is substantially high. In such situations, one may select a sample sufficiently large to satisfy the requirement of representativeness and precision and then, by combining several sampling units into composites, reduce the cost of measurement to an affordable level. Thus composite sampling offers an approach to deal with the classical dilemma of desirable versus affordable sample sizes, when conventional statistical methods fail to resolve the problem. Composite sampling, at least under idealized conditions, incurs no loss of information for estimating the population means. But an important limitation to the method has been the loss of information on individual sample values, such as the extremely large value. In many of the situations where individual sample values are of interest or concern, composite sampling methods can be suitably modified to retrieve the information on individual sample values that may be lost due to compositing. In this monograph, we present statistical solutions to these and other issues that arise in the context of applications of composite sampling. Content Level Research

The International Summer School on Statistical Distributions in Scientific Work was held in Trieste during July 1980 for a period of three weeks. The emphasis was on research, review, and exposition concerned with the interface between modem statistical distribution theory and real world problems and issues involving science, technology, and management. Both theory and applications received full attention at the School. The program consisted of a Short Intensive Preparation Course, a NATO Advanced Study Institute, and a Research Conference. While the relative composi- tion of these activities varied somewhat in terms of instruction, exposition, research- review, research, and consultation, the basic spirit of each was essentially the same. Every participant was both a professor and a student. The summer school was sponsored by the NATO Advanced Study Institutes Program; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy; Regione Autonoma Friuli Ven- ezia Giulia, Italy; National Institutes of Health, USA; Office of Naval Research, USA; The Pennsylvania State University; Universita di Roma; Universita di Trieste; International Statistical Ecology Program; International Transfer of Science and Technology, Belgium; and the participants and their home institutions and organiza- tions. Research papers, research-review expositions and instructional lectures were spe- cially prepared for the program. These materials have been refereed and revised, and are now available in a series of several edited volumes and monographs.

Sampling consists of selection, acquisition, and quantification of a part of the population. While selection and acquisition apply to physical sampling units of the population, quantification pertains only to the variable of interest, which is a particular characteristic of the sampling units. A sampling procedure is expected to provide a sample that is representative with respect to some specified criteria. Composite sampling, under idealized conditions, incurs no loss of information for estimating the population means. But an important limitation to the method has been the loss of information on individual sample values, such as, the extremely large value. In many of the situations where individual sample values are of interest or concern, composite sampling methods can be suitably modified to retrieve the information on individual sample values that may be lost due to compositing. This book presents statistical solutions to issues that arise in the context of applications of composite sampling.

The International Summer School on Statistical Distributions in Scientific Work was held in Trieste during July 1980 for a period of three weeks. The emphasis was on research, review, and exposition concerned with the interface between modem statistical distribution theory and real world problems and issues involving science, technology, and management. Both theory and applications received full attention at the School. The program consisted of a Short Intensive Preparation Course, a NATO Advanced Study Institute, and a Research Conference. While the relative composi- tion of these activities varied somewhat in terms of instruction, exposition, research- review, research, and consultation, the basic spirit of each was essentially the same. Every participant was both a professor and a student. The summer school was sponsored by the NATO Advanced Study Institutes Program; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy; Regione Autonoma Friuli Ven- ezia Giulia, Italy; National Institutes of Health, USA; Office of Naval Research, USA; The Pennsylvania State University; Universita di Roma; Universita di Trieste; International Statistical Ecology Program; International Transfer of Science and Technology, Belgium; and the participants and their home institutions and organiza- tions. Research papers, research-review expositions and instructional lectures were spe- cially prepared for the program. These materials have been refereed and revised, and are now available in a series of several edited volumes and monographs.

The International Summer School on Statistical Distributions in Scientific Work was held in Trieste during July 1980 for a period of three weeks. The emphasis was on research, review, and exposition concerned with the interface between modern statistical distribution theory and real world problems and issues involving science, technology, and management. Both theory and applications received full attention at the School. The program consisted of a Short Intensive Preparation Course, aNA TO Advanced Study Institute, and a Research Conference. While the relative composi- tion of these activities varied somewhat in terms of instruction, exposition, research- review, research, and consultation, the basic spirit of each was essentially the same. Every participant was both a professor and a student. The summer school was sponsored by the NATO Advanced Study Institutes Program; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy; Regione Autonoma Friuli Ven- of Health, USA; Office of Naval Research, ezia Giulia, Italy; National Institutes USA; The Pennsylvania State University; Universita di Roma~ Universita di Trieste; International Statistical Ecology Program; International Transfer of Science and Technology, Belgium; and the participants and their home institutions and organiza- tions. Research papers, research-review expositions and instructional lectures were spe- cially prepared for the program. These materials have been refereed and revised, and are now available in a series of several edited volumes and monographs.