ABSTRACT
The Canadian Soil Carbon Project was initiated in 1991 to determine the amount of organic carbon in all Canadian soils. The goal was to establish a uniform database for soil carbon data for the whole of Canada. Canada's Soil Organic Carbon Database consists of a digital cover in ARC/INFO format compiled at 1:1 million scale. The database is also composed of 3 attribute tables, a carbon polygon attribute table (CARBON.PAT), a carbon component table (CARBON. CMP), and a carbon layer table (CARBON. LYR). The Carbon Polygon Attribute Table (CARBON.PAT) links the digital cover and to the other attribute tables CARBON. CMP describes each soil and/or nonsoil component found in each spatial polygon. CARBON. LYR contains pertinent information for calculating a soil's carbon density for each layer of each soil. The Canadian Soil Organic Carbon Database can be used confidently by policy makers to evaluate the state of carbon in soils and identify areas of concern.
