The LUCAS topsoil database and derived information on the regional variability of cropland topsoil properties in the European Union

The Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) is a pilot project to monitor changes in the management and nature of the land surface of the European Union. Sampling is based on the intersection points of a 2 x 2 km grid covering the EU. In the 2009 LUCAS exercise, the sampling of soil complemented the general land use and land cover survey, through the collection of topsoil samples from around 10% of the sites visited in that year. Nearly 21,000 soil samples were collected in twenty-five EU Member States (EU-27 except Bulgaria and Romania) with the aim to produce the first coherent physicochemical database of soils at pan-European Scale. Soil samples have been analysed for basic soil properties, including particle size distribution, pH, organic carbon, carbonates, NPK and CEC, and multispectral properties. Preliminary studies show the outstanding potential of the dataset in enhancing the knowledge base for soils in the EU. The current paper provides an introduction to the LUCAS Topsoil 2009 project and provides an example of data applicability by highlighting some of the results on organic carbon measurements in a regional comparison.

TOTH Gergely;  JONES Arwyn;  MONTANARELLA Luca; 

2014-08-11

SPRINGER

JRC68134

0167-6369,   

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-013-3109-3,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC68134,   

10.1007/s10661-013-3109-3,