The central African soil spectral library: a new soil infrared repository and a geographical prediction analysis

Summerauer, Laura; Baumann, Philipp; Ramirez-Lopez, Leonardo; Barthel, Matti; Bauters, Marijn; Bukombe, Benjamin; Reichenbach, Mario; Boeckx, Pascal; Kearsley, Elizabeth; Van Oost, Kristof; Vanlauwe, Bernard; Chiragaga, Dieudonné; Heri-Kazi, Aimé Bisimwa; Moonen, Pieter; Sila, Andrew; Shepherd, Keith; Bazirake Mujinya, Basile; Van Ranst, Eric; Baert, Geert; Doetterl, Sebastian; Six, Johan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021

Articles | Volume 7, issue 2

SOIL, 7, 693–715, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue: Tropical biogeochemistry of soils in the Congo Basin and the...

SOIL, 7, 693–715, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 2

Original research article 26 Oct 2021

Original research article | 26 Oct 2021

The central African soil spectral library: a new soil infrared repository and a geographical prediction analysis

Laura Summerauer et al.

Data sets

Data and Codes: "The Central African Soil Spectral Library: A new soil infrared repository and a geographical prediction analysis" Laura Summerauer, Philipp Baumann, Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, Matti Barthel, Marijn Bauters, Benjamin Bukombe, Mario Reichenbac, Pascal Boeckx, Elizabeth Kearsley, Kristof Van Oost, Bernard Vanlauwe, Dieudonné Chiragaga, Aimé Bisimwa Heri-Kazi, Pieter Moonen, Andrew Sila, Keith Shepherd, Basile Bazirake Mujinya, Eric Van Ranst, Geert Baert, Sebastian Doetterl and Johan Six https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4351254

Model code and software

Data and Codes: "The Central African Soil Spectral Library: A new soil infrared repository and a geographical prediction analysis" Laura Summerauer, Philipp Baumann, Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, Matti Barthel, Marijn Bauters, Benjamin Bukombe, Mario Reichenbac, Pascal Boeckx, Elizabeth Kearsley, Kristof Van Oost, Bernard Vanlauwe, Dieudonné Chiragaga, Aimé Bisimwa Heri-Kazi, Pieter Moonen, Andrew Sila, Keith Shepherd, Basile Bazirake Mujinya, Eric Van Ranst, Geert Baert, Sebastian Doetterl and Johan Six https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4351254

Short summary

We present a soil mid-infrared library with over 1800 samples from central Africa in order to facilitate soil analyses of this highly understudied yet critical area. Together with an existing continental library, we demonstrate a regional analysis and geographical extrapolation to predict total carbon and nitrogen. Our results show accurate predictions and highlight the value that the data contribute to existing libraries. Our library is openly available for public use and for expansion.