Histosols - Organic soils

The geographical distribution of histosols (organic soils) is derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD v1.2), a raster dataset published in 2012 by FAO and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (FAO and IIASA, 2012). The HWSD compiles more than 40 years of soil information from several sources worldwide, reclassified and harmonized according to the FAO–UNESCO classification. The HWSD dataset was queried to extract values representing the pixel area that contains histosols, as either dominant or secondary soil type.

Soil units in the HWSD dataset dominated by histosols are characterized by soils with a thick layer of strongly decomposed acidic organic material (70 cm thick), with continuous rock at 80 cm that develop in environments with a large excess of precipitation.