Development of a 10-km resolution global soil profile dataset for crop modeling applications

Abstract

One major challenge in applying crop simulation models at the regional or global scale is the lack of available global gridded soil profile data. We developed a 10-km resolution global soil profile dataset, at 2 m depth, compatible with DSSAT using SoilGrids1km. Several soil physical and chemical properties required by DSSAT were directly extracted from SoilGrids1km. Pedo-transfer functions were used to derive soil hydraulic properties. Other soil parameters not available from SoilGrids1km were estimated from HarvestChoice HC27 generic soil profiles. The newly developed soil profile dataset was evaluated in different regions of the globe using independent soil databases from other sources. In general, we found that the derived soil properties matched well with data from other soil data sources. An ex-ante assessment for maize intensification in Tanzania is provided to show the potential regional to global uses of the new gridded soil profile dataset.