Three-dimensional space and time mapping reveals soil organic matter decreases across anthropogenic landscapes in the Netherlands

Abstract

For restoring soil health and mitigating climate change, information of soil organic matter is needed across space, depth and time. Here we developed a statistical modelling platform in three-dimensional space and time as a new paradigm for soil organic matter monitoring. Based on 869 094 soil organic matter observations from 339,231 point locations and the novel use of environmental covariates variable in three-dimensional space and time, we predicted soil organic matter and its uncertainty annually at 25 m resolution between 0–2 m depth from 1953–2022 in the Netherlands. We predicted soil organic matter decreases of more than 25% in peatlands and 0.1–0.3% in cropland mineral soils, but increases between 10–25% on reclaimed land due to land subsidence. Our analysis quantifies the substantial variations of soil organic matter in space, depth, and time, highlighting the inadequacy of evaluating soil organic matter dynamics at point scale or static mapping at a single depth for policymaking.