Global Soil Bulk Density at Six Standard Depths, 250m Resolution

Tomislav Hengl provides a global raster dataset of soil bulk density for the fine earth fraction. The data covers six standard depths from 0 to 200 cm at a 250-meter spatial resolution, representing mean values for the period 1950 to 2017. Antarctica is not included in the spatial coverage.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil carbon stocks based on bulk density values at multiple depths.
• Assessing soil compaction and its impact on root growth using depth-specific density data.
• Integrating soil physical properties into hydrological or ecosystem models based on the provided spatial layers.
• Calibrating remote sensing soil property estimates with laboratory-derived bulk density measurements.

Strengths

• Provides data at six standardized depths (0, 10, 30, 60, 100, 200 cm), enabling vertical profile analysis.
• Offers a consistent 250-meter spatial resolution for global analysis.
• Covers a long temporal reference period from 1950 to 2017.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for some analytical methods.
• Antarctica is explicitly excluded from the spatial coverage.

Provenance

Source

Tomislav Hengl via OpenLandMap

Collection Method

Laboratory method determination (USDA.4a1h) for bulk density, processed into global raster layers.

Time Range

1950-2017

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Global (excluding Antarctica)