HU-SoilCarbonGrids: Real-time data on changes in organic carbon stocks stored in Hungary’s soils

In recent years, researchers at the Institute of Soil Science of the HUN-REN Agricultural Research Center have made significant efforts to model and map the spatial and temporal variability of organic carbon stocks stored in Hungary’s soils. As a result, they developed the HU-SoilCarbonGrids (https://husoilcarbongrids.hu/) initiative, which aims to provide comprehensive, reliable, and time-dynamic information at the national level on the spatial and temporal variability of organic carbon stocks stored in Hungarian soils.

The HU-SoilCarbonGrids methodology relies on time-series observations from the Soil Protection Information and Monitoring System, numerous so-called environmental auxiliary variables related to soil formation factors, as well as advanced machine learning algorithms, and provides spatial and temporal estimates of changes in carbon stocks in Hungarian soils and the associated uncertainties. The current version of HU-SoilCarbonGrids provides annual information from 1992 to 2023 at a spatial resolution of 100×100 meters on the spatial and temporal variability of organic carbon stocks stored in the topsoil (0–30 cm) of Hungarian soils, which is considered unique for Hungary, as information of similar detail has not been available previously.

Although the current version of HU-SoilCarbonGrids is already capable of meeting numerous domestic and international information needs regarding changes in organic carbon stocks, our Institute’s staff are committed to further developing both the methodology and the range of soil and environmental data used in the future, as well as providing up-to-date information at the national level regarding the spatial and temporal variability of organic carbon stocks in Hungarian soils through the publication of updated versions. This information will support sustainable agriculture, the EU’s soil monitoring efforts, the preservation of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, the reduction of soil and landscape degradation, as well as the monitoring and enhancement of organic carbon content in Hungarian soils.

The results maps of the current version of HU-SoilCarbonGrids are also available in interactive form (https://husoilcarbongrids.hu/), with the aim of raising public awareness of the diverse functions of soils.

Their publication on the HU-SoilCarbonGrids initiative was published in the journal European Journal of Soil Science:

Szatmári G., Laborczi A., Takács K., Mészáros J., Koós S., Bakacsi Zs., Pásztor L., 2026.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70292