ABSTRACT
Large soil units generally reflect bioclimatic environments (the concept of zonal soils). Soil maps thus represent summary documents that integrate all environmental factors involved. The characteristics of soils represent the environmental factors that control the dynamics of soil organic matter (SOM) and determine both their accumulation and degradation. Soil maps thus represent a basis for quantitative studies on the accumulation processes of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils in different spatial scales. From this point of view, however, and in particular if one is interested in general scales (large semicontinental regions), soil maps have several disadvantages.
