Generalized models to estimate carbon and nitrogen stocks of organic soil layers in Interior Alaska

Abstract. Boreal ecosystems comprise about one tenth of the world's land surface and contain over 20 % of the global soil carbon (C) stocks. Boreal soils are unique in that the mineral soil is covered by what can be quite thick layers of organic soil. These organic soil layers, or horizons, can differ in their state of decomposition, source vegetation, and disturbance history. These differences result in varying soil properties (bulk density, C content, and nitrogen (N) content) among soil horizons. Here we summarize these soil properties, as represented by over 3000 samples from Interior Alaska, and examine how soil drainage and stand age affect these attributes. The summary values presented here can be used to gap-fill large datasets when important soil properties were not measured, provide data to initialize process-based models, and validate model results. These data are available at https://doi.org/10.5066/P960N1F9 (Manies, 2019).