Assessing soil degradation in northern Eurasia

• Several small-scaled maps have been produced for the USSR and then Russian Federation by national and international groups.
• The maps differed in the approaches, scales, and credibility of data.
• National maps provided the status of soil degradation with limited information on the its dynamics and potential risks.
• We need to reflect the status, trend and risks of soil degradation, based on field and remote sensing data processing.

Soil degradation in Northern Eurasia was given much less attention than hotspots in tropics. Our review of the maps showed that the arable lands of the region were impacted by degradation. We intended to compare soil degradation assessments for the region, to outline the gaps in the studies and to propose ways forward in the soil degradation studies. The organization of monitoring of the state of land and soil is needed for maintaining soil productivity and supporting soil ecosystem services. The regular surveys in Russia do not always adequately address salinization, erosion and soil contamination. Both the status and the rate of soil degradation should be assessed on the basis of combined remote sensing and field surveys.