Our soil is an immensely valuable national resource, which forms and evolves over very long periods of time and therefore is essentially a non-renewable resource. Once soil is severely damaged or destroyed it is effectively lost forever. The protection of soil poses some unique difficulties for a number of reasons, such as its enormous spatial variability, incomplete understanding of its exact functioning and reaction to pressures, limited information on soil biodiversity and the fact that soil is generally held in private ownership. However, soil protection needs to be placed on an equal footing with that of water and air. At a national level our information on soil and soil quality is limited. We are pleased to see that this information deficit is being addressed with the publication of this, the first Soil Geochemical Atlas of Ireland. This Atlas shows the basic geochemical properties of soils in Ireland, as revealed by a detailed large-scale survey across the country and analysis of the findings. It provides Ireland with a sound, well-structured baseline of soil geochemical properties relevant to This Atlas is the result of a great deal of hard work by our relevant organisations and academic institutions from across the country and individual experts. They have produced a comprehensive picture of the basic chemistry underpinning life on land, which has resulted from the complex interactions of air, water, soil and human activities. This will aid all of those with an interest in the sustainable use of one of Ireland?s principal natural resources to make well-informed decisions as to its management and conservation. It will also assist Ireland in meeting any future requirements under the proposed Soil Framework Directive. We believe that this Soil Geochemical Atlas is the beginning of a process to ensure that we develop good quality and scientifically robust information on the state of soil in Ireland. By developing our knowledge and understanding of soil we can ensure that soil and its multiple functions are protected for present and future generations.

The resource allows you to download the PDF version of the Soil Geochemical Atlas report. This can be done in two ways - firstly the entire report is available as a 154Mb PDF or secondly the report is separated into individual chapters (six in total).

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Suggested Citation Information

The information supplied in the table below should be provided with all citations to this electronic resource. You are requested to format each of the fields below as required by the specific bibliographical style you are using.

An example of this citation in proper usage:

Fay, D. Kramers, G. Zhang, C.   "Soil Geochemical Atlas of Ireland". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=4856ff8c-4b2b-102c-b381-901ddd016b14 (Last Accessed: 2024-09-19)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=105
Resource Keywords	Soil Geochemical Atlas Ireland sustainable land use
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	None
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Land-use, Soils, and Transport
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	While the maps in this atlas will give a good and statistically significant indication of the distribution of the concentrations of an element, soil type, land use or geology, they will not provide local information for specific sites. The geochemical spatial distribution maps, although a very good tool to indicate the relationship between large scale trends related to geology, soil type, land use and climatic effect, are less likely to capture local anomalies. On a local scale, the data point maps may over-exaggerate anomalies when sampling occurred on a specific site which had an exceptionally high or low concentration of an element.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	7
Project Start Date	Wednesday 3rd January 2001 (03-01-2001)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Monday 2nd January 1995 (02-01-1995)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Friday 1st December 2006 (01-12-2006)
Published on SAFER	Friday 13th February 2009 (13-02-2009)
Date of Last Edit	Friday 13th February 2009 at 15:00:12 (13-02-2009)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Friday 13th February 2009 at 14:19:47 (13-02-2009)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The soil samples for the National Soil Database were taken at fixed locations on a predetermined National Grid made up of 10 x 10 km squares. Two samples were taken from each square, one on the intersection and one at the centre of the square. The sampling locations can be seen on the sample location map on the next page. Sites were located using 1:50,000 maps and assisted by GPS. In the event of it not being possible to take a sample at the projected sampling position, a default procedure similar to that used in the Geochemical Survey of England and Wales (McGrath and Loveland, 1992) was used. At the sites, a 20 x 20 m grid was created with the sampling position at the centre. Soil cores were then taken on the grid at 5 m intervals with a Dutch auger (Eijkelkamp, The Netherlands). The 25 cores were taken to a depth of 10 cm and bulked to form field moist, composite samples weighing approximately 2 - 4 kg. A total of 1310 samples were collected and analysed.

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In this section some supplementary information about this resource is outlined. Lineage information helps us to understand why this project was carried out, what policy or research requirements did it fulfil, etc. Lineage is important in understanding the rationale behind the carrying out of a project or the collection of a specific dataset etc. Links to web sites, applications, papers, etc are outlined to provide you with additional information or supplementary reading about the project or dataset

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The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Soil Geochemical Atlas of Ireland. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• Towards a National Soil Database View Full Metadata Description
• Summary of Irish Soil Data from Scoping Study View Full Metadata Description
• A Framework for the Assessment of Groundwater - Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems under the Water Framework Directive View Full Metadata Description
• Water Quality characteristics of road runoff View Full Metadata Description
• Quantification of Erosion and Phosphorus Release from a Peat Soil Forest Catchment View Full Metadata Description

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