Soil Carbon Estimates in 20-cm Layers to 1-Meter Depth for the Conterminous US

1970-1993 data provides a soil map with estimates of soil carbon in grams per square meter for 20-centimeter depth intervals from the surface to one meter. The estimates are derived from the STATSGO v.1 database and aggregated to soil map unit polygons. This geospatial dataset supports analysis of carbon storage and soil properties across the contiguous United States.

Use Cases

• Modeling terrestrial carbon storage based on soil map unit polygons.
• Assessing soil health and organic matter content across agricultural regions.
• Calibrating or validating remote sensing estimates of soil carbon.
• Informing land management and conservation policy with spatially explicit carbon data.

Strengths

• Provides carbon estimates for five standardized depth intervals (20-cm layers to 1m), enabling vertical profile analysis.
• Covers the conterminous United States, offering national-scale spatial coverage.
• Data is derived from the authoritative STATSGO v.1 (State Soil Geographic Database).

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and file sizes are unspecified across all sources.
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between platforms (1993 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The underlying STATSGO v.1 data reflects soil conditions from the period 1970-1993 and may not represent current conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Estimates derived from STATSGO v.1 (State Soil Geographic Database, Soil Survey Staff, 1994) data.

Time Range

1970-1993

Freshness

1993-12-30 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Conterminous United States