World’s Soil Resources

6.2.5 | Distribution of terrestrial carbon pool by vegetation class
Areas where SOC or biomass C dominate could be identified by computing the difference between the two
layers. The resulting layer is presented in Figure 6.6.
Figure 6.6 Prevalence of carbon in the topsoil or biomass
The figure shows that, as a general propensity, soil dominates the terrestrial C pool in cooler climates while
vegetation forms the dominant pool of terrestrial C in tropical regions.
In an attempt to provide C stock estimates for broad land use activities, global GLC 2000 data layers
were used. The GLC 2000 categories were re-classified according to the assignments for these classes given
by Ruesch and Gibbs (2008). A difference in the assignment was applied to GLC 2000 classes 16 (Cultivated
and Managed Areas) and 23 (Irrigated Agriculture). In the broad classification these areas were grouped with
other areas mainly associated with an absence of soil or biomass (bare areas, glaciers, etc.). For the analysis
Status of the World’s Soil Resources | Main Report Global soil status, processes and trends
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