Soil classification in Northern Circumpolar Soil Atlas

Soil Datasets > Maps > Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region > Soil classification

Correlation of major soil types

National soil classifications play key role in accumulation and arrangement of the knowledge on basic soil characteristics of any country. National soil classifications replicate local experience (both positive and negative) of soil use arising from practical demand and country specific natural conditions. The table below illustrates that countries apply different nomenclature to term soils. This diversity is not terminological. Instead, various terms include different soil characteristics and their groupings. This makes correlation of soil names difficult. Therefore the coincidence between soil names in the table below is approximate. International soil classification (WRB) is a denominator bridging national terms on the basis of soil measured characteristics. This allows putting national experiences together and benefiting from sharing know-how among countries.

Natural zone	Canada	Russia	USA	WRB
High Arctic tundra	Cryosolic	Cryozems	Gelisols	Cryosolic
Boreal forest	Podzolic	Al-Fe-Humic	Spodosols	Podzols
	Gleysolic	Gleyzems	Inceptisols	Gleysols
	Organic	Peat	Histosols	Histosols
Temperate forest	Luvisolic	Texture-differentiated	Alfisols	Albeluvisols
	Brunisolic	Metamorphic	Inceptisols	Cambisols
Steppe (prairie) grassland	Chernozemic	Humic-accumulative	Mollisols	Chernozems

Table. Correlation of major soil types occurring in the Northern Circumpolar region

Three (3) different National Classification Systems

Soil names are different in different countries. In spite of this difference, as can be seen from the soil maps, the various soil classifications reproducing common geographical features of the circumpolar region if they are based on soil characteristics (e.g., Russia Cryozems include a part of permafrost-affected soils indicated by the US Soil Taxonomy and Canadian soil classification systems. To produce full coverage of the permafrost-affected soils in Russia corresponding to both above-mentioned systems, the "frozen" hydro-thermo regime has been introduced.). This example illustrates agreed opinion of soil scientists that physically measured soil characteristics are the best for soil comparisons.

Another observation is that similarity of the features on the maps coincides with major bioclimatic zones e.g., from north to south: high Arctic tundra, boreal and temperate forests, grasslands (steppe and prairie). This shows that national soil classification systems has common pedo-genetic basis, which is the soil-environment unity.

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Soil map of the Northern Circumpolar region in the Atlas

A new soil map of the Northern Circumpolar region has been developed for the Atlas. It includes a part of the circumpolar soil database on Northern America released by the “Cryosol Working Group” of the International Union of Soil Science under the leadership of Dr. Charles Tarnocai in 2002 and updated version of the European Soil Database on the Northern Eurasia. The update is based on the revision of the soil map of the Scandinavian countries including boarder harmonization between Norway and Sweden and introduction of a new soil inventory in Sweden. In addition a boarder harmonization between Russia and China parts was performed.

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