Global Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Profiles from Zinke Database

Soil carbon and nitrogen measurements for over 3,500 soil profiles collected worldwide. The database originated from analyses by Zinke about 40 years ago, incorporating samples from California, Italy, Greece, Iran, Thailand, Vietnam, Amazonian areas, U.S. forests, and the literature. It provides a baseline for natural vegetation soil pools, with data collection methods including dry combustion, wet combustion, and Kjeldahl nitrogen analysis.

Use Cases

• Estimating soil organic carbon and nitrogen pool sizes using bulk density and carbon content columns.
• Establishing a baseline for natural vegetation soil carbon to evaluate disturbance effects at global or regional scales.
• Analyzing the range of soil carbon and nitrogen pools for specific ecosystems or climatic regimes.
• Calibrating or validating soil carbon models using profile data from diverse global locations.

Strengths

• Contains data from over 3,500 individual soil profiles, providing a substantial sample size.
• Profiles include bulk density determinations and standardized depth increments for core samples.
• Spatial coverage is global, including data from California, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, the Amazon, and U.S. forests.
• Analytical methods for carbon (dry/wet combustion) and nitrogen (Kjeldahl) are documented.

Limitations

• Column names and a precise row count are not provided by any source, limiting immediate analysis.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one platform lists 2026-03-13, while another lists 1986-12-31, indicating potential metadata issues.
• For literature-sourced profiles, bulk density was sometimes estimated via regression, not directly measured.

Provenance

Source

Collection and analyses initiated by Zinke, with additional data from soil surveys and literature; organization listed as NASA.

Collection Method

Laboratory analyses on soil samples collected at uniform depth increments, supplemented by data extracted from soil survey literature.

Time Range

Database development began approximately 40 years prior to the source descriptions.

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:50:38.413639

Geography

Worldwide, including California, Italy, Greece, Iran, Thailand, Vietnam, tropical Amazonian areas, and U.S. forest soils.