Global Soil Organic Carbon Estimates

Global estimates of soil organic carbon stocks have been produced in the past to support the calculation of potential emissions of CO2 from the soil under scenarios of change land use/cover and climatic conditions (IPCC, 2006), but very few global estimates are presented as spatial data. For global spatial layers on soil parameters, the most recent and complete dataset is available as the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). The HWSD represents a step forward towards a spatially more detailed and thematically more refined set of global soil data. The data set contains organic carbon density (t ha-1) for the topsoil (0 â�“ 30cm) and the subsoil layer (30 â�“ 100cm) from the amended HWSD. The Global Soil Organic Carbon estimates are available in 2 different grid resolutions (ZIP compression): (1) Raster layer with resolution of 30 arc second (which corresponds to a grid size of approx. 1km x 1km at the Equator; and (2) Raster layer with resolution of 5 arc minute (which corresponds to a grid size of approx. 9km x 9km at the Equator). The data are in Idrisi format. Reference: Hiederer, R., and M. Köchy. 2012. Global Soil Organic Carbon Estimates and the Harmonized World Soil Database. EUR 25225 EN â�“ EUR Scientific and Technical Research series. doi:10.2788/13267.