The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database

Polygon based GIS data (shape-files)

The NCSCDv2 is based on polygons from different regional soils maps homogenized to the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. The database contains information on fractions of coverage of different soil taxa as well as storage of soil organic carbon (kg/m²) between 0–300 cm depth. The data is stored as ESRI shape-files with associated attribute table databases. There are separate zipped data-folders with: (1) a merged circumpolar dataset (2) all regions in separate shape-files, projected in the Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (LAEA) projection and (3) all regions in separate shape-files with geographic latitude/longitude coordinates (WGS84).

Download data

• Circum-polar regions (projected coordinates, LAEA)
• Circum-polar regions (geographic coordinates, WGS84)
• Regions (projected coordinates, LAEA)
• Regions (geographic coordinates, WGS84)

Publications

For detailed technical descriptions of the polygon-data and discussion s regarding use of the database, we refer to this paper published in the journal Earth System Science Data Discussions.

A new data set for estimating organic carbon storage to 3 m depth in soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region
Hugelius G., Bockheim J.G., Camill P., Elberling B., Grosse G., Harden J.W., Johnson K., Jorgenson T., Koven C.D., Kuhry P., Michaelson G., Mishra U., Palmtag J., Ping C.-L., O'Donnell J., Schirrmeister L., Schuur E.A.G., Sheng Y., Smith L.C., Strauss J. and Yu Z.
Earth System Science Data, Vol 5, pp. 393–402 (2013). DOI:10.5194/essd-5-393-2013

The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database: spatially distributed datasets of soil coverage and soil carbon storage in the northern permafrost regions
Hugelius, G., Tarnocai, C., Broll, G., Canadell, J. G., Kuhry, P., and Swanson, D. K.
Earth System Science Data, Vol 5, pp. 3–13 (2013). DOI:10.5194/essd-5-3-2013