TERN Symposium 2011

1. Insert your logo here Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia Presentation by Mike Grundy, CSIRO

2. Purpose of Facility A fine-scale, nationally comprehensive and consistent grid of soil functional attributes – a new form of national soil information which meets the need of ecosystem process and modelling science and which is integrated with developments in earth observation and earth system science.

3. Key Questions being Addressed How are the key soil drivers of ecosystem function distributed in space? What is the uncertainty of our estimates of these functions? What is the spatial arrangement of soil attribute depth curves in Australia? What is the representativeness and generality of ecosystems processes observed at a site (with national climate and remote sensing grids)

4. Infrastructure to be Delivered Grid-based fine, consistent and comprehensive soil information system at a resolution of 3 arcsec; Mapped estimates of key functional soil attributes (organic carbon, total P, soil texture, coarse fragments, pH, depth to bedrock, effective soil depth, bulk density, available water holding capacity and significant landform elements); Curves of depth relationships of these attributes; Soil covariates including landform and gamma radiometrics; Uncertainty estimates for each attribute expressed as estimation bounds On-line mapping access

5. Standard depth mean Fit spline Soil profile data -variable intervals -missing data Depth spline function Standard depths A pilot example: pH for South Australian soils with the depth relationship now expressed as a mass-preserving spline:

7. Our plan for community engagement Communication plan developed with the main project plan Oversight by National Committee on Soil and Terrain National Soil Information Symposia – first in late 2011 Informal ad hoc meetings Interactive web presence (through the ACLEP and ASRIS sites)

8. Collaborating organisations

9. Acknowledgements National Committee on Soil and Terrain – members from each State and Territory, Universities and Federal Govt

10. Facility Contact Details Director: Mike Grundy (mike.grundy@csiro.au) Information contact: Peter Wilson (peter.wilson@csiro.au) Communications: Claire Harris (claire.harris@csiro.au)