The Northern and Mid Latitude Soil Database (readme.txt) Prepared 4/26/2004 Update 8/8/2014 INTRODUCTION ------------ The Northern and Mid Latitude Soil Database includes dominant soil characteristics for the following regions: Alaska, Canada, Conususa, Eurasia (Italy is a separate file), Greenland, Iceland, Kazakstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Italy and Svalbard . The data is available in ESRI shape file format. It has generally been compiled at 1:1 million scale and should not be presented at a scale larger than that. DATA FILE LISTING ------------------- 1. alaska.zip - shape file of Alaska 2. canada.zip - shape file of Canada 3. conususa.zip - shape file of cont. USA 4. eurasia.zip - shape file of Eurasia (minus Italy) 5. greenland.zip - shape file of Greenland 6. iceland.zip - shape file of Iceland 7. italy.zip - shape file of Italy 8. kazakstan.zip - shape file of Kazakstan 9. mexico.zip - shape file of Mexico 10. mongolia.zip - shape file of Mongolia 11. svalbard.zip - shape file of Svalbard PROJECTION PARAMETERS ---------------------- Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area Projection Datum NONE Units METERS Radius of Sphere of Reference 6370997.00000 Longitude of Center of Projection 180 0- 0.00- Latitude of Center of Projection 90 0- 0.00- False Easting 0.0000 False Northing 0.0000 DATA FORMAT ------------ Data is in the US soil classification system and includes the distribution of soil types (%) within a map unit (polygon). Data is available in ESRI shapefile format and include the same attribute values with the exception of ITALY which does not contain distribution values. (The WRB classification and its legend dominant mapping symbol (US) are included, making it possible to map the Italy data with the other files.) The data files (except Italy) include the following attributes (the listing is from the *.dbf of of the shapefiles: AREA (metres) PERIMETER COVER# (internal ARC/INFO #) COVER-ID (internal ARC/INFO ID#) MAPUNIT_ID (link to original source data, 7 CHAR) GELISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Gelisol) HISTOSOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Histosol) MOLLISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Mollisol) VERTISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Vertisol) ARIDISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Aridisol) ANDISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Andisol) ENTISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Entisol) ULTISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Ultisol) SPODOSOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Spodosol) INCEPTISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Inceptisol) ALFISOL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Alfisol) NATRIC_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Natric type) AQU_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Aqu suborder) WATER_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is water) ROCKLAND_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is rockland) GLACIER_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is glacier) MISC_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is miscellaneous) TURBEL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Turbel of the Gelisol order) ORTHEL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Orthel of the Gelisol order) HISTEL_PCT (3 Integer - percentage of polygon that is Histel of the Gelisol order) **Note: the last three attributes further subdivide the Gelisol order. The shapefiles include vector (polygon) data. Companion Files - GRAPHICS --------- northmid.jpg - the Northern and Mid Latitude Map at 1:15 000 000 scale polar.jpg - produces the Northern Circumpolar Soil Map at 1:10 000 000 scale NOTES ------ For an additional QC of these files, a -total percent- column was added. In several instances records/polygons were found that did not contain any data (soil type was not recorded for polygons composed of over 90% rock or ice). In some cases these may be purposeful omissions (e.g. No MUID, or an SMU of -2), and in some cases it may be due to errors in digitizing or recording attribute data. The following files contained instances of -no data- values (some have been fixed): Canada - a sliver polygon with no attributes was removed Conususa - 3 sliver polygons with no attributes were removed Greenland - there is no attribute data for 66 data records that do not have an MUID Mexico - 5 sliver polygons with no attributes were removed Eurasia - there are 499 records that do not have any attribute data You can identify these records by their SMU value: SMU = -2 (476 polygons) SMU = 0 (21 polygons) SMU = 330228 (1 polygon) SMU = 33740 (1 polygon) CITATION ---------- Cryosol Working Group. 2014. Northern and Mid Latitude Soil Database, Version 1, R1. Data Set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi: 10:3334/ORNLDAAC/705 REFERENCES ----------- This database was developed through a cooperative effort of: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the US Dept. of Agriculture, the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the University of Copenhagen Institute of Geography, the European Soil Bureau, the University of Manchester Institute of Landscape Ecology, MTT Agrifood Research Finland, and the Agricultural Research Institute Iceland. The following resources were used in compiling the soil database: Aarnalds, O. and E. Gretarsson. 2001. Generalized Soil Map of Iceland. 2nd Edition. Agriculural Research Institute (Rala), Reykjavik, Iceland. Dorzhgotov, D. and N.A. Nogina. 1990. Khors (The Soil Map of Mongolia). Pp. 66-67 in: Undesniy Atlas (Atlas of Mongolia). BNMAU-in Shinzhlekh Ukhaany Akademi, Ulan Bator, Mongolia. European Soil Bureau. 1999. The European Soil Database, version 1.0. CD-ROM. Ipra, Italy. Fridland, V.M. (Ed.). 1998. Pochvennaya Karta RSFSR (Soil Map of the Russian Republic), RSFSR. V.V. Dokuchayev Soils Institute, Moscow, Scale 1:2,500,000. International Permafrost Association. 1997. Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions. (J. Brown, O.J. Ferrians Jr., J.A. Heginbottom, E.S. Melnikov, Eds.). U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services, Denver, Colorado, U.S. Jakobsen, B.H. and A. Eiby. 1997. A Soil Map of Greenland. II International Conference, Cryopedology, August 1997, Syktyvkar, Russia. Schlesinger, W.H. and J.F.B. Mitchell. 1987. Climate model simulations-. Soil Classification Working Group. 1998. The Canadian System of Soil Classification. Third Ed. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Publ 1646 (Revised), 187 pp. Soil Science Staff. 1999. A Basic System of Soil Classification for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys, Second Ed. NRCS, USDA, Lincoln, NE, U.S. Tarnocai, C. and B. Lacelle. 1996. The Soil Organic Carbon Digital Database of Canada. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada. U.S. Soil Conservation Service. 1994. The State Soil Geographic Database, STATSGO. NRCS, USDA, Lincoln, NE, U.S. Uspanov, U.U. (Ed.) 1976. Pochvennaya Karta Kazakhskoy SSR (Soil Map of the Kazakh SSR). GUGK, Moscow, Scale 1:2,500,000.