Ecological site identification, soil observations, and geomorphology data collected by the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) terrestrial program between 2012 and 2021 in the western United States

This metadata is the documentation for the field soil observations, ecological site identification, and geomorphology characteristics collected by the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) terrestrial program between 2012 and 2021 in 14 states of the western United States. The AIM program is conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s and provides information to guide site-specific management of ecosystem functions and services. There are 31,267 monitoring plots (79% of plots) with identified ecological sites and 29,228 plots (74% of plots) containing soil morphology descriptions of soil horizons examined in excavated pits. While soil texture class is observed in most soil horizons (98%), rock fragment volume is the soil property with the least data availability (75%). The consistency of soil data (e.g., clay content observations within the ranges of texture classes) increases as a function of time following guidance in soil profile description training for AIM data collectors. Nearly 47% of AIM plots are found on gentle slopes of 0-5% steepness and on Flat/Plain and Hill/Mountain landscape types. The AIM database is a source of georeferenced soil and geomorphology information that can be used for land management and research on land potential, soil geography, and assessment of soil health indicators across the western United States.
Resources in this dataset:

Resource title: Plot characteristics
File name: PlotCharacteristics.csv
Resource description: Plot characteristics table contains information on GPS coordinates, ecological site ID, and geomorphological settings, such as slope, aspect, landscape type, etc.

Resource title: Soil horizon
File name: SoilHorizon.csv
Resource description: The soil horizon table has information on soil morphology attributes, such as color, texture class, effervescence, soil structure, etc.

Resource title: Plot characteristics data dictionary
File name: PlotCharacteristicsDataDictionary.csv

Resource title: Soil horizon data dictionary
File name: SoilHorizonDataDictionary.csv

Resource title: Methods
File name: Methods.txt

本元数据构成了对2012年至2021年间在美国西部14个州内由评估、盘点与监测（AIM）陆地项目收集的土壤观测、生态站点识别及地貌特征记录的详尽说明。AIM项目由土地管理局（BLM）组织实施，旨在提供指导信息，以助力针对生态系统功能与服务的特定场地管理。数据集中包含31,267个监测样地（占总样地的79%），其中已识别出生态站点，以及29,228个样地（占总样地的74%），其中包含了在挖掘坑中考察的土壤剖面的土壤形态描述。土壤质地类别在大多数土壤剖面（98%）中均有观测，而岩石碎片体积是数据可用性最低的土壤属性（75%）。随着对AIM数据收集者进行的土壤剖面描述培训指导的贯彻实施，土壤数据的连贯性（例如，纹理类别范围内的粘土含量观测）随时间推移而不断提升。约47%的AIM样地位于0-5%的缓坡之上，以及位于平原/丘陵和山丘/山地景观类型区域。AIM数据库是地理参照土壤和地貌信息的宝贵来源，可用于土地管理、土地潜力研究以及美国西部地区土壤地理学研究，并对土壤健康指标进行评估。