Global Soil Regions

There are tens of thousands of different kinds of soils throughout the world. Soils are classified into groups according to physical, morphological, and chemical properties. In soil taxonomy, soils are grouped into several categories, the highest being soil orders. This map shows the geographic distribution of the 12 soil orders. It has been published in the second edition of Soil Taxonomy: A Basic System of Soil Classification for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys as well as several textbooks and encyclopedias. The Global Soil Regions map is a reclassification of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (FAO/UNESCO) Soil Map of the World to soil taxonomy suborders and is aggregated to soil orders. As soil moisture regimes are used to define suborders, a global soil climate map was used with the FAO soil units to determine the best soil taxonomy equivalent.

Courtesy of Natural Resources Conservation Service.