Estimating soil organic carbon in Europe based on data collected through an European network

Under the European Union Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment (DG Environment) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) have identified decline in soil organic matter and soil losses by erosion as priorities for the collection of policy-relevant soil data at European scale. To support EU policies related to soil conditions the data collected on corresponding indicators requires establishing agreed datasets for the EU Member States on these themes.In 2010, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), which is charged with the collection of soil data at European scale and hosts the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), conducted a project to collect data on soil organic carbon and soil erosion in Europe using the European Environment Information and Observation Network for soil (EIONET-SOIL). The data submitted by participating countries are their best estimate and represent an official point of view. The technical approach taken allows a country to easily update the records when new data become available.This paper presents the first results obtained from analyzing the soil organic carbon data submitted to EIONET-SOIL. The collected data were compared with the modelled data of the European topsoil organic carbon content developed at the JRC. The modelled data follow the general pattern of the geographic distribution of collected data, but show higher values compared to the EIONET-SOIL data. The important role of soil organic carbon (SOC) as an indicator of soil quality underlines the need for using common methods of sampling, analysing and reporting soil organic carbon to provide a standard product, such as EIONET-SOIL.

► National soil organic carbon data were collected through a European network.
► The network can be used for reporting baseline data and soil indicator status.
► Reported soil organic carbon for agricultural land was compared to modelled data.
► The national data showed generally lower SOC content than the modeled data.
► Causes are attributed to management of peat, mapping method and temporal changes.