Linking Global Land Use/Land Cover to Hydrologic Soil Groups From 850 to 2015

The characteristics of soils in part determine human-induced land use and land cover (LULC) change, and together, soil properties and LULC directly impact global water, energy, and biogeochemical cycles. Plant health and the exchange of energy, water, and biogeochemical components at the surface interface are partly controlled by soil properties. Different soil types modify vegetation responses to existing climate forcings, and each soil type also responds differently to the same land-use practice. Currently, Earth system models often use single soil columns with averaged properties. This leads to uncertainties in assessing LULC impacts. To improve the estimates of land surface change in Earth System Models, we link an existing LULC data set to four hydrologic soil groups from 850 to 2015, based on demonstrated soil preferences for eight LULCs under current conditions. We conclude that humans prefer hydrologic soil groups in order from B, D, C, to A. This ranking was applied to construct the history of LULC on each soil type at the 0.5 degrees grid resolution. Results primarily distribute croplands to hydrologic soil group B in 850, while hydrologic soil group A has the most undisturbed area. Over time, good soils (hydrologic soil groups B and D) experience increased use for cropland areas, while poor soils (hydrologic soil groups C and A) are occupied predominantly by increasing areas in grazing land and secondary nonforests. The results provide better land surface characteristics to improve Earth systems modeling.