Soil Health Index and Soil Function maps for Latin America and the Caribbean

Description:This repository contains 90-meter resolution raster maps generated as part of the study titled “Soil Health in Latin America and the Caribbean”. These datasets provide geospatial information on soil health and its five primary functions across the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. The data aim to support research, policy-making, and land management practices by offering insights into soil health conditions and functionality at a continental scale.

Data Included:

Soil Health Index (SHI): 

LAC_SHI: Comprehensive index integrating physical, chemical, and biological soil attributes to assess soil health across LAC (Size 3.19 Gb).

Soil Functions (f):

LAC_fi: Storage and regulation of nutrient fluxes and availability (Size 2.12 Gb).

LAC_fii: Regulation of water fluxes, storage, and availability (Size 2.59 Gb).

LAC_fiii: Soil organic carbon sequestration and biodiversity support (Size 1.94 Gb).

LAC_fiv: Physical support for plant growth (Size 2.48 Gb).

LAC_fv: Resistance to erosion and degradation (Size 2.42 Gb).

Format:

Raster maps in GeoTIFF format (*.tif).

Spatial resolution: 90 meters.

Coordinate reference system: EPSG:4326 (WGS 84).

Scale factor: 0.01

Use and applications:

Environmental research and modeling.

Policy development for soil conservation and sustainable land management.

Educational purposes in soil science and geospatial studies.

Visualization and other sources:Additionally, the Soil Health Index (SHI) and soil functions (SF) maps can be visualized via the Earth Engine application at https://geocis.users.earthengine.app/view/lac-soil-health and downloaded from https://geocis.users.earthengine.app/view/lac-soil-health-download. For more information, access it on the GeoCiS website, available at https://esalqgeocis.wixsite.com/english/thematic-products.

Acknowledgments:We thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, process 2014/22262-0; 2021/05129-8), the Center for Carbon Research in Tropical Agriculture (CCARBON/USP, process 2021/10573-4) and the Geotechnologies in Soil Science research group (GeoCiS, https://esalqgeocis.wixsite.com/english) for supporting this work.