Soil Organic Carbon

The Global Soil Organic Carbon (GSOC) map only provides data on carbon stocks up to a depth of 30 cm. In parts of the world, however, organic soils can be up to 11 m deep, and they therefore contain more organic carbon than what is indicated by the GSOC map. The global soil carbon map (GSOC) is based on national SOC maps and national soil sampling schemes, which may differ in their sampling period, intensity and spatial distribution. In addition, even when all countries have followed a common methodological approach to derive the national SOC maps, there might be national specifies and differences in the details of the approaches used to produce the 1 km resolution maps from the soil sampling data. SOC mapping involves making predictions or extrapolations at locations where no soil measurements were taken. This inevitably leads to some prediction errors because soil spatial variation is the result of a complex set of factors and processes that cannot be modelled perfectly at a national or global level.