Knowledge of soil properties such as organic carbon content, clay content and pH is vital for agriculture and climate change analysis in Africa.
ISRIC has launched a new type of freely accessible soil property maps for Africa. The maps contain predictions of seven soil properties at six standard depths at 1 km resolution. The soil property maps as well as the software to generate them are available for download (http://www.isric.org/data/soil-property-maps-africa-1-km) under a Creative Commons licence.
Which crops are suitable 100 kilometres south of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso? What is an optimal fertilization regime for the East coast of Kenya? How much carbon dioxide is stored in Congo by saving its rainforests? It is often difficult to answer such questions accurately without information on soil properties such as sand-silt-clay content, bulk density or mineral content. Unfortunately accurate soil information has been difficult to obtain, which explains why African soil properties are rarely considered in agricultural planning and environmental modelling. The aim of the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS), an international programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to improve this situation, among others by creating up-to-date digital soil property maps at high spatial resolution.
ISRIC has made the first version of digital soil property maps, drawing on 12,000 geo-referenced soil profile records from 37 countries. The records were collected from over 300 data sources, ranging from digital databases, books, reports and articles. The legacy soil profiles, together with a large amount of remote-sensing based images of vegetation, climate and terrain relief, were used to estimate the soil properties for the non-desert parts of Africa. The accuracy of the estimates was also calculated.
One mouse click can tell you for instance that Cameroon, Ghana and West Congo all have a large amount of organic carbon in the topsoil (more than six percent). Or that the soil along the northern border of South Africa contains only low amounts of organic carbon (less than 0.7 percent). “These first soil property maps are still at the proof of principle stage”, says ISRIC researcher Tom Hengl. “We have only used 12,000 profiles to estimate soil properties foran area of 18.3 million square kilometres. And the maps reflect the period from 1950 to 2005, while some soil properties, such as soil organic content, have probably changed over time.”. Hengl is pinning his hopes on crowdsourcing: “National institutes and regional offices can now contribute their own data and help us improve estimates of soil properties for the whole of Africa. This should be a joint effort.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Soil property maps
- CO2 pipelines could affect the land, lives and livelihoods of South Dakota property ownerson May 18, 2022 at 4:19 pm
Landowners with prior experience dealing with underground pipeline construction say the process is invasive to their land and their lives. The pipelines can prevent future development of their land ...
- USCM Doubles Claims Package and Commences Exploration Program at Clayton Ridge Lithium Propertyon May 18, 2022 at 5:13 am
US Critical Metals Corp. (TSXV: USCM) ("USCM" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has staked and filed with the Esmeralda County and the Bureau of Land Management an additional 90 ...
- Trailbreaker Resources Acquires the Eagle Lake Property in South-Central BC, Adjacent to Woodjam Copperon May 18, 2022 at 4:47 am
Figure 1 Eagle Lake Location Map VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. (TBK.V) (“Trailbreaker” or “the ...
- Land management: Assessing soil healthon May 16, 2022 at 10:53 am
Through the years, agriculture, conservation and overall land management have gone through phases with each phase having its buzzwords, promoters, detractors, research objectives – well, you get the ...
- Dallas plans $2 million for Shingle Mountain soil cleanup that may take 2 yearson May 11, 2022 at 9:26 pm
Dallas officials say the city plans to seek state aid to help clear high levels of lead and other contaminants found in the soil at the former Blue ...
- ValOre Drills Multiple Zones of Near-Surface Radioactivity at Dipole Target, Angilak Property Uranium Projecton May 9, 2022 at 4:22 am
Figure 2: Dipole target map, showing locations ... EM conductor and uranium-in-soils anomalism. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dfaa1b3c-dce5-41ab-91ef-1d6b0b710edf Figure 3: ...
- Trailbreaker Resources Acquires the Connector Gold Property, Adjacent to the Past-Producing Brenda Mineon May 4, 2022 at 4:45 am
At the Connector, many Cu-Mo soil geochemical anomalies were identified ... see the dedicated section on Trailbreaker’s website. Additional property-scale maps will be added in the coming weeks. Carl ...
- Zonte identifies two new copper-in-soil anomalies at Cross Hills Copper Propertyon April 28, 2022 at 10:59 am
HALIFAX, NS, April 28, 2022 /CNW/ - Zonte Metals is pleased to provide the following update on the Cross Hills Copper Project, located in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The Company has discovered ...
- Watsonville: Hillcrest Estate residents could be liable for soil contamination issueson April 25, 2022 at 5:06 pm
(Google Maps Screenshot) Motor oil levels ... The group argues that by excavating and moving contaminated soil to the edge of the property, where they would bury it in a 35 foot deep pit sealed ...
- Scientists share updates, including maps, from Tonawanda Coke Soil Studyon April 24, 2022 at 5:00 pm
The study team cannot publicly identify specific addresses because that data is protected by confidentiality agreements with property owners whose soil was tested. Scientists cannot violate the ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Soil property maps
[/vc_column_text]
The Latest Bing News on:
Soil properties
- Soil Moisture Sensor Market could be worth US$ 288.3 million by 2025 says The Insight Partnerson May 19, 2022 at 6:58 am
Latest market study on “Soil Moisture Sensor Market to 2025 by Type (Volumetric Soil Moisture Sensor and Soil Water Potential Sensor), End-user ...
- Louisville home survives, family now concerned about possible soil contaminationon May 18, 2022 at 5:30 am
Clean-up for most families impacted by the Marshall Fire is just getting started, and some homeowners are facing new challenges. A Louisville woman's home was spared from the fire, but there may be ...
- University of Florida researchers first to grow plants in moon soilon May 16, 2022 at 4:00 pm
Researchers at the University of Florida have found that plants can grow in moon soil, collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions, according to a study published Thursday. The study is the ...
- Scientists grow plants in soil from moon for 1st timeon May 13, 2022 at 8:02 am
For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts. Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to ...
- Scientists grow plants in soil from the moon for the first timeon May 12, 2022 at 11:55 pm
Humans may one day be able to grow plants for food and oxygen on the moon during space missions. Scientists have finally succeeded in growing plants in soil collected from the moon for the first time.
- NASA scientists grow plants in Apollo lunar soil for the first time: 'Everything sprouted!'on May 12, 2022 at 6:32 pm
For the first time, scientists have successfully grown plants in lunar soil brought back to Earth by NASA's Apollo astronauts.
- Plants Have Been Grown in Lunar Soil for the First Time Everon May 12, 2022 at 4:04 pm
For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts. Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see ...
- ‘Holy cow’: scientists successfully grow plants in moon soil for the first timeon May 12, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Researchers at the University of Florida planted thale cress in harsh lunar dirt returned by Apollo 11 astronauts ...
- Scientists Grew Plants in Lunar Soil for First Time Everon May 12, 2022 at 8:57 am
Beast/GettyOne of the biggest hurdles that humans have to overcome before colonizing places like the moon or Mars is food—namely, how do we get it? If we ever expect to be a multi-planetary species, ...
- Plants grown in lunar soil for the first timeon May 12, 2022 at 8:05 am
While the plants flowered, lunar soils negatively affected their growth, meaning there is still some way to go until farming on the Moon becomes a viable prospect.
