Revision Date: July 24, 2014

Summary:

This dataset contains global data on soil properties, global maps of soil distributions, and the SoilData System developed by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS). These data were originally distributed on CD-ROM, but are provided here as a single zip file. The SoilData System allows users to generate soil information and maps for geographic regions at soil depths and resolutions selected by the user. Derived surfaces of carbon density, nutrient status, water-holding capacity, and heat capacity are provided for modeling and inventory purposes.

Data Citation:

Cite this data set as follows:

Global Soil Data Task. 2014. Global Soil Data Products CD-ROM Contents (IGBP-DIS). Data Set. Available online [http://daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. http://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/565.

This data set was originally published as:

Global Soil Data Task. 2000. Global Soil Data Products CD-ROM (IGBP-DIS). CD-ROM. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Data and Information System, Potsdam, Germany. Available from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. [http://www.daac.ornl.gov].

Background:

The Global Soil Data Task was an international collaborative project with the objective of making accurate and appropriate data relating to soil properties accessible to the global change research community. The collaborators are holders of major international pedosphere data sets, such as the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the International Soil Reference and Information Centre, as well as national soils institutes, individual soil scientists, and users of soil data. The task was coordinated by the the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS).

The task group assembled a reliable and accessible data set on pedosphere properties on a global scale. The data are sufficiently detailed to support rigorous analysis, and accessible to and understandable by soil scientists and non-soil scientists alike. The immediate goal was to supply pedosphere information to global change researchers, but the unification and distribution of the existing soils data bases will be of great benefit to all researchers, not only those directly involved in global change studies. The task was enabled by the active participation of the principal international custodians of pedosphere data.

CD-ROM User Information:
When opened, the zip file contents are identical to the original CD-ROM. The CD-ROM data system was written to run under Windows98 or Windows95. It will not run under WindowsNT. It requires no complex installation: simply run it directly from the CD or, for best results, copy the contents of the CD directly onto your hard drive. In the latter event, ensure that all files in the "program" folder are present in a single folder. Files in the remaining folders can be copied as needed.

The operation and algorithms of the SoilData System are fully explained in the accompanying on-line help manual. This manual resides in the file "SoilData.hlp", which is a Rich Text format (RTF) file that can be imported and printed from any standard word-processing package.

The SoilData system uses data derived from the global pedon database developed by ISRIC.

SoilData also uses image files taken directly from the FAO/UNESCO Digital Soil Map of the World (1995).

References:

Global Soil Data Task. 2000. Global Soil Data Products CD-ROM (IGBP-DIS). CD-ROM. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Data and Information System, Potsdam, Germany. Available from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. [http://www.daac.ornl.gov].

Batjes, N. H. (ed.) 1995 A homogenized soil data file for global environmental research: A subset of FAO, ISRIC and NRCS profiles (Version 1.0). Working Paper and Preprint 95/10b. International Soil Reference and Information Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Carter, A. J., and R. J. Scholes, 2000. SoilData v2.0: Generating a Global Database of Soil Properties CSIR Environmentek, Pretoria, South Africa.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 1995. Digital Soil Map of the World, Version 3.5. FAO, Rome, Italy

Scholes, R. J., D. Skole, and J. S. Ingram (eds.). 1995. A Global Database of Soil Properties: Proposal for Implementation. IGBP-DIS. IGBP-DIS Working Paper # 10a. Report of the Global Soils Task Group, International Geosphere-Biosphere Progr amme - Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS). University of Paris, France.