External Databases

A flexible database designed to harmonize diverse SOM datasets from multiple research networks. SoDaH is built on several network science efforts in the United States, but the tools built for SoDaH aim to provide an open-access resource to facilitate and automate further harmonization and synthesis of soil carbon data. Moreover, SoDaH allows for individual locations to contribute results from experimental manipulations, repeated measurements from long-term studies, and local- to regional-scale gradients across ecosystems or landscapes (Wieder et al., 2021: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-195).

The World Soil Information Service (WoSIS) aims to serve the user with a selection of standardised and ultimately harmonised soil profile data. The quality-assessed data may be used to underpin digital soil mapping and a range of global assessments.
(Batjes et al., 2020: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-299-2020)

Here, we compiled data from a set of soil health measurements collected across 41 countries around the world, named SoilHealthDB, which includes 5,241 data entries from 281 published studies. The SoilHealthDB includes 42 soil health indicators and 45 background indicators that describe factors such as climate, elevation, and soil type. A primary goal of SoilHealthDB is to enable the research community to perform comprehensive analyses, e.g., meta-analyses, of soil health changes related to cropland conservation management. (Jian et al., 2020a: https://doi.org/10.2134/ael2018.06.0033)

The ISCN database has a mix of overlapping and unique data as compared with other databases. The ISCN reports over 100 (carbon plus other attributes) soil properties for 430,000 individual soil layers from over 71,000 profiles worldwide. Data are separated into profile- and layer-level data products. These profile- and layer-level database reports are available in two forms: 1) for all profiles/all layers; 2) for only those profiles and layers that have computed SOC stocks. (Harden et al. 2018: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13896)

SIDB is an open database of soil incubation studies. It contains a time series of multiple studies across the world. Currently, there are 31 entries in the database. Most entries have multiple time series of CO2 release from incubation experiments. The current total number of times series is 684.0, and the total number of datapoints is 39859. The database has a relatively good coverage of many ecosystem types. However, tropical ecosystems are under-represented. (Schadel et al., 2020: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1511-2020)

The Coastal Carbon Data Library is an archive of open-source carbon data collected from tidal wetland habitats around the world. This public resource is curated and maintained by CCN personnel, and continues to grow through contribution from the research community. Presently, the CCN Data Library contains more than 9800 sediment profiles from 66 countries across 62 years, and includes representation of Blue Carbon habitats such as marsh, mangrove, seagrass, and tidal freshwater wetlands. The CCN is nested under the Smithsonian, a trusted institution with a legacy of long-term archival.

ISRaD is an open community repository for soil radiocarbon data. It is an open-source archive of soil data that include reported measurements from bulk soils, distinct soil carbon pools isolated in the laboratory by a variety of soil fractionation methods, samples of soil gas or water collected interstitially from within an intact soil profile, CO2 gas isolated from laboratory soil incubations, and fluxes collected in situ from a soil profile. The core of ISRaD is a relational database structured around individual datasets (entries) and organized hierarchically to report soil radiocarbon data, measured at different physical and temporal scales as well as other soil or environmental properties that may also be measured and may assist with interpretation and context.(Lawrence, et al. 2020: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-61-2020)

The SoilTemp-database is the core of the SoilTemp project, and currently consist of over 70.000 time series from more than 80 countries across the globe, submitted by more than a thousand data contributors. The database is still under development and data is not yet open access.

This dataset is a digital soil survey and generally is the most detailed level of soil geographic data developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The information was prepared by digitizing maps, by compiling information onto a planimetric correct base and digitizing, or by revising digitized maps using remotely sensed and other information.

FLUXNET is an international “network of networks,” tying together regional networks of earth system scientists. FLUXNET scientists use the eddy covariance technique to measure the cycling of carbon, water, and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere.

The ISCN has formal and informal links with science networks across academia, government and non-governmental institutions. This is a further list of affiliated datasets, databases, and observatory networks.

Offers standardized and curated data of key root traits for large-scale studies and global models. GRooT includes 38 root traits, 38,276 species-by-site mean values based on 114,222 trait records. GRooT includes more than 1,000 species with data on the following nine traits: root mass fraction, root carbon and nitrogen concentration, lateral spread, root mycorrhizal colonization intensity, mean root diameter, root tissue density, specific root length, and maximum rooting depth.

The National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale observation facility operated by Battelle and designed to collect long-term open access ecological data to better understand how U.S. ecosystems are changing. Soil information includes soil physical and chemical properties, soil CO2 concentration, soil water content and water salinity, stable isotopes, soil temperatire, soil inorganic nitrogen pools and transformations, soil microbiome data, root biomass and chemistry, and more.

gNATSGO is a USDA-NRCS Soil & Plant Science Division (SPSD) composite database that provides complete coverage of the best available soils information for all areas of the United States and Island Territories. It was created by combining data from the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO2), and Raster Soil Survey Databases (RSS) into a single seamless ESRI file geodatabase.

With a suite of datasets consisting of satellite observations like Landsat, climate reanalyses like ERA5, and decision-ready drought and rangeland vegetation datasets, Climate Engine tools put petabytes of cutting-edge data at your fingertips. Climate Engine tools use Google Earth Engine for on-demand processing of satellite and climate data on a web browser and features on-demand mapping of environmental monitoring datasets, such as remote sensing and gridded meteorological observations.

ESDAC is the thematic centre for soil related data in Europe. Its ambition is to be the single reference point for and to host all relevant soil data and information at European level. It contains a number of resources that are organized and presented in various ways: datasets, services/applications, maps, documents, events, projects and external links.

The Rapid Carbon Assessment (RaCA) was initiated by the USDA-NRCS Soil Science Division in 2010 to provide a scientifically and statistically defensible inventory of soil carbon stocks for the U.S. To do so, 144,833 samples were collected from the upper 1 meter of 32,084 soil profiles at 6,017 randomly selected locations for measurement of organic and inorganic carbon by visible and near infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy and bulk density by traditional methods. Soil morphology and landscape characteristics were described at each site and limited vegetation and agricultural management information was collected from each location. Sample collection and analysis involved more than 300 soil scientists and assistance from 24 universities.

The Ag Data Commons is a research data catalog and repository for public access to data produced during research funded or co-funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. Through the Ag Data Commons, the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) provides services to make USDA-funded research data systems and data products Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). Each submitted dataset goes through a review by Ag Data Commons data curators -- NAL metadata librarians who ensure completeness and accuracy of the submission before approving it for publication.

GloSIS, the Global Soil Information System of the FAO Global Soil Partnership is a one-stop-shop for global soil information and data. GloSIS is a platform created to provide easy access to dynamic soil resource information as a federated, country-driven and globally harmonised Global Soil Information System. The development of GloSIS is overseen by the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII) and the system is being populated by data provided by INSII members.

ISRIC – World Soil Information is an independent foundation with a mission to serve the international community as a custodian of global soil information. They support soil data, information and knowledge provisioning at global, national and sub-national levels for application into sustainable management of soil and land. In collaboration with its partners, ISRIC has been working for over 50 years on compiling and harmonizing data on soils and their properties. This includes multiple soil-related databases, digitized maps, and more.

This state-of-the-art database was established by IIASA and FAO in partnership with: the ISRIC-World Soil Information which, together with the FAO, contributed recent regional soil and terrain databases together with the WISE soil profile database; The European Soil Bureau Network, which provided its major new update of soil information for Europe and northern Eurasia; and The Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which made available its most recent 1:1,000,000 scale Soil Map of China. HWSD has two main goals: 1) To increase the quantity and quality of data available by capturing data at a grid cell size of 30 arc seconds of longitude and latitude (approximately, l km); 2) To harmonize and expand soil attribute information (texture, composition) with recently collected soil data.

Hosted in the FAO Soils portal, These maps allow for the estimation of topsoil (0-30 cm) soil organic carbon sequestration potential in agricultural areas under four soil management scenarios: a Business as Usual (BAU) scenario and three Sustainable Soil Management (SSM1, SSM2 and SSM3) scenarios.

The European Joint Program (EJP) soil data catalogue system contains data products produced in the EJP SOIL and in the wider Soil community and an overview of national datasets.

MONet aims to transform understanding of soils and provide news tools for adapting to and counteracting climate change. This database will allow for the conversion of traditionally labor-intensive molecular analysis methods into a high-throughput workflow, providing key molecular and microscale information to climate scientists, modelers, and experimenters.​ By standardizing these workflows, all data will be useful and can reduce human bias and uncertainties.​ Vast amounts of unique data will be collected and managed at an unprecedented scale and used to advance regional-scale and Earth system process models that cover key ecosystems across the United States. [Discoverable November 2024)

An open database of litter mass loss from aridlands worldwide with recommendations on suitable model applications. The database
includes 184 entries from aridlands across the world, representing a wide range of climates. For the majority of the data gathered in aridec, it is possible to fit models of litter decomposition that consider initial organic matter as a homogenous reservoir (one pool models), as well as models with two distinct types of organic compounds that decompose at different speeds (two pool models).

Forest Inventory and Analysis DataMart: "make and keep current a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the present and prospective conditions of and requirements for the renewable resources of the forest and rangelands of the US". Managed by the USDA and US Forest Service.

The Soil Respiration Database (SRDB) is a near-universal compendium of published soil respiration (Rs) data. The database encompasses published studies that report at least one of the following data measured in the field (not laboratory): annual soil respiration, mean seasonal soil respiration, a seasonal or annual partitioning of soil respiration into its source fluxes, soil respiration temperature response (Q10), or soil respiration at 10 degrees C. The SRDB's orientation is to seasonal and annual fluxes, not shorter-term or chamber-specific measurements, and the database is dominated by temperate, well-drained forest measurement locations. Version 5 (V5) is the compilation of 2,266 published studies with measurements taken between 1961-2017.

Over the last three decades, soil spectroscopy has proven to be a cost- and time-effective, reproducible, nondestructive, and environmental-friendly technique that can be a viable alternative to conventional soil analysis methods. Developing a robust connection between spectral patterns and soil properties requires data, a lot of it, to train various machine learning algorithms. This presents a significant barrier to uptake of this technology. We believe that both the data and these trained models for soil spectroscopy data analysis need to be free, transparent and easy to access to users around the world. Open source data and algorithms will serve transparency, reproducibility, and inform better management decisions. Bringing together these open datasets and algorithms is a main aim of the Soil Spectroscopy for the Global Good (SoilSpec4GG) project. SoilSpec4GG will enable soil scientists and stakeholders to apply Vis–NIR–MIR reflectance spectroscopy as a mature technique for routine soil analysis.

TRY is a network of vegetation scientists headed by Future Earth, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, and iDiv providing free and open access to plant trait data.

MethaneSAT will process observed spectrographic data to calculate quantitative emission rates, revealing how much methane is emitted and how it varies across the landscape. The analytics will track emissions based on winds and atmospheric conditions, determining location and volume from individual point sources, as well as cumulative emissions across larger areas. Stakeholders and the public will be able to access the results freely, in a timely manner. Data available late 2024.

The Digital General Soil Map of the United States or STATSGO2 is a broad-based inventory of soils and non-soil areas that occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped of 1:250,000 for most of U.S and territories and 1:1M for Alaska.

The United States Trace Gas Network (TRAGNET) is meant to accomplish the following two goals: 1) Document contemporary fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O between regionally important ecosystems and the atmosphere; 2) Determine the factors controlling these fluxes and improve our ability to predict future fluxes in response to ecosystem and climate change.

AmeriFlux is a network of PI-managed sites measuring ecosystem CO2, water, and energy fluxes in North, Central and South America. It was established to connect research on field sites representing major climate and ecological biomes, including tundra, grasslands, savanna, crops, and conifer, deciduous, and tropical forests.