Awareness Raising > JRC Activities > Educational Posters
The Major Soil types of Europe and The Major Soil Types of Nothern Circumpolar Region
The Major Soil Types of Europe: Supporting the European Union’s Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.
The Major Soil Types of Nothern Circumpolar Region: A contribution to the International Polar Year 2007-2009.
Find 2 illustrations of High resolution for raising awareness!
The Soil Map of Europe shown in the centre of this poster is derived from the 1:1,000,000 scale Soil Geographical Database of Eurasia. The database is the result of a collaborative project involving all the European Union Member States and neighbouring countries through participation in the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN). The map shows a simplified representation of the diversity and geographical variability of the soil cover across Europe. The underlying database has been processed to extract the most dominant soil type for a particular unit of landscape. Each colour represents a specific type of soil (i.e. WRB Reference Group), examples of which are presented on this poster. |
The striking map on this poster depicts the major soil types of the northern circumpolar region according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification and correlation scheme. The purple regions denote the presence of Cryosols, permafrost-affected soils covering the arctic deserts, tundra and the boreal zones. The widespread olive-grey of the Histosols (organic soils), together with the bluish tones representing Gleysols and Stagnosols, indicate that large areas of the northern circumpolar region are wet in nature. The thin turquoise strips that cut the map are Fluvisols on the floodplains of the major rivers that drain the landscape. |
| Important legal notice © European Communities, 1995- Last updated: |
European Commission - Joint
Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability Contacts: Marc Van Liedekerke(tel. +39-0332-785179) Panos Panagos (tel. +39-0332-785574) |
JRC Activities
School Material
EU Presidency Soil Series