Vertical Soil Organic Carbon Profiles Across Chinese Croplands

A depth-consistent survey of 5,187 soil profiles from 247 cropland sites across China introduces the Vertical Carbon Attenuation Coefficient (VCAC) metric. The dataset, authored by Andong Cai and last updated in May 2026, provides a quantitative framework for analyzing the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon. It is used to project changes in carbon architecture under future climate scenarios.

Use Cases

• Calibrating soil carbon modules in Earth System Models based on the VCAC metric.
• Analyzing the relationship between climate variables and vertical carbon distribution patterns.
• Projecting future changes in soil carbon architecture under SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios.
• Studying the spatial organization of soil organic carbon across Chinese agricultural regions.

Strengths

• Based on a survey of 5,187 soil profiles from 247 sites.
• Introduces a novel, process-sensitive metric (VCAC) for vertical carbon architecture.
• Explicitly quantifies the influence of climate variables like mean annual precipitation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Geographic scope is limited to Chinese croplands.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Depth-consistent soil profile survey.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-21 08:26:08; freshness should be verified.

Geography

China