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Sampling Soil for Characterization and Site DescriptionThe sampling scheme for soil characterization within the GLOBE program is uniquely different from the sampling methods of the other protocols. The strategy is based on an understanding of the 5 soil forming factors (parent material, climate, biota, topography, and time) at each study site, and how each of these interact to produce a soil profile with unique characteristics and unique input and control into the atmospheric, biological, and hydrological systems. Soil profile characteristics, as opposed to soil moisture and temperature, vegetative growth, and atmospheric and hydrologic conditions, change very slowly, depending on the parameter being measured, ranging from seasonally to many thousands of years. Thus, soil information, including profile description and lab analysis, is collected only one time for each profile at a site. These data serve two purposes: 1) to supplement existing spatial information about soil profile characteristics across the landscape at local, regional, and global scales, and 2) to provide specific information within a given area about the basic substrate to which elements within the other protocols are linked. Because of the intimate link between soil properties and these other environmental elements, the static soil properties at a given site are needed to accurately interpret and understand the continually changing dynamics of soil moisture and temperature, vegetation growth and phenology, atmospheric conditions, and chemistry and turbidity in surface waters. Both the spatial and specific soil information can be used for modeling purposes to assess and make predictions about global change.
Document ID
19990089296
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Levine, Elissa
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Subject Category
Geophysics
Meeting Information
Meeting: Global Learning to Benefit the Environment
Location: Durham, NH
Country: United States
Start Date: July 18, 1999
End Date: July 30, 1999
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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