The Soil Database of China for Land Surface Modeling

Introduction | Data citation | Data download

This soil characteristics database was developed for use in the land surface modeling.

The dataset includes soil physical and chemical attributes: pH value, organic matter fraction, cation exchange capacity, root abundance, total nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P), total potassium (K), alkali-hydrolysable N, available P, available K, exchangeable H⁺, Al³⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺ , Na⁺, horizon thickness, soil profile depth, sand, silt and clay fractions, rock fragment, bulk density, porosity, structure, consistency and soil color. Quality control information (QC) was provided.

The resolution is 30 arc-seconds (about 1 km at the equator). The vertical variation of soil property was captured by eight layers to the depth of 2.3 m (i.e. 0- 0.045, 0.045- 0.091, 0.091- 0.166, 0.166- 0.289, 0.289- 0.493, 0.493- 0.829, 0.829- 1.383 and 1.383- 2.296 m) for convenience of use in the Common Land Model and the Community Land Model (CLM).

The documentation of the dataset can be downloaded here, including readme file and the data citation paper (with its auxiliary material).

Shangguan, W., Y. Dai, B. Liu, A. Zhu, Q. Duan, L. Wu, D. Ji, A. Ye, H. Yuan, Q. Zhang, D. Chen, M. Chen, J. Chu, Y. Dou, J. Guo, H. Li, J. Li, L. Liang, X. Liang, H. Liu, S. Liu, C. Miao, and Y. Zhang (2013), A China Dataset of Soil Properties for Land Surface Modeling, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 5: 212-224.

The dataset in NetCDF format can be downloaded in the following table.

^a These three color are the soil colors described with 'unclear', dry and wet water condition. We offered hue of Munsell color in numbers instead of symbols to save data storage. The numbers can be converted back into symbols as following. The integer numbers from 0 to 9 represent the ten hue sectors: R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P and RP, respectively. The decimal numbers represent the number before the symbols. For example, 1.75 can be converted back into symbols as 7.5YR.

^c For soil with multiple consistency classes, we retain the first two. Codes are as following:

^d For root abundance classes, we retain the first two. Codes are as following: 0=none; 1=very few; 2=moderately few; 3=few; 4=moderate; 5=many; 6=a great many; 7=dense.