Soil mapping is an essential method for obtaining a spatial overview of soil resources that are increasingly threatened by environmental change and population pressure. Despite recent advances in digital soil-mapping techniques based on inference, such methods are still immature for large-scale soil mapping. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, soil scientists constructed a harmonised soil map of Europe (1:1 000 000) based on national soil maps. Despite this extraordinary regional overview of the spatial distribution of European soil types, crude assumptions about soil properties were necessary for translating the maps into thematic information relevant to management. To support modellers with analytical data connected to the soil map, the European Soil Bureau Network (ESBW) commissioned the development of the soil profile analytical database for Europe (SPADE) in the late 1980s. This database contains soil analytical data based on a standardised set of soil analytical methods across the European countries. Here, we review the principles adopted for developing the SPADE database during the past five decades, the work towards fulfilling the milestones of full geographic coverage for dominant soils in all the European countries (SPADE level 1) and the addition of secondary soil types (SPADE level 2). We illustrate the application of the database by showing the distribution of the root zone capacity and by estimating the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks at a depth of 1 m for Europe to be 60×10¹⁵ g. The increased accuracy, potentially obtained by including secondary soil types (level 2), is shown in a case study to estimate SOC stocks in Denmark. Until data from systematic cross-European soil-sampling programmes have sufficient spatial coverage for reliable data interpolation, integrating national soil maps and locally assessed analytical data into a harmonised database remains a powerful resource to support soil resources management at regional and continental scales by providing a platform to guide sustainable soil management and food production.

中文翻译：

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欧洲统一土壤剖面分析数据库的开发：支持区域土壤管理的资源

土壤制图是获取空间资源概览的一种必不可少的方法，该资源日益受到环境变化和人口压力的威胁。尽管基于推理的数字土壤制图技术最近取得了进展，但这种方法对于大规模土壤制图仍不成熟。在1970年代，1980年代和1990年代，土壤科学家绘制了欧洲的统一土壤图（1：1 000 000）基于全国土壤图。尽管对欧洲土壤类型的空间分布进行了非同寻常的区域概述，但对于将土壤图转换为与管理相关的主题信息而言，仍然需要对土壤性质进行粗略的假设。为了向建模者提供与土壤图相关的分析数据，欧洲土壤局网络（ESBW）于1980年代后期委托开发了欧洲土壤剖面分析数据库（SPADE）。该数据库包含基于整个欧洲国家的一组标准化土壤分析方法的土壤分析数据。在这里，我们回顾了过去五年来开发SPADE数据库所采用的原则，为实现所有欧洲国家的主导土壤完全地理覆盖（SPADE级别1）和增加次生土壤类型（SPADE级别2）的里程碑而开展的工作。我们通过显示根区容量的分布并估算深度为1的土壤有机碳（SOC）储量来说明该数据库的应用 欧洲的m为60×10 ¹⁵  g。案例研究显示，通过包括次生土壤类型（级别2）可能获得的提高的准确性，以估算丹麦的SOC储量。在系统的跨欧洲土壤采样计划的数据具有足够的空间覆盖范围以进行可靠的数据插值之前，将国家土壤图和本地评估的分析数据整合到一个统一的数据库中仍然是一种强大的资源，它可以通过提供以下内容来支持区域和大陆规模的土壤资源管理：指导可持续土壤管理和粮食生产的平台。