European topsoil bulk density and organic carbon stock database (0–20 cm) using machine-learning-based pedotransfer functions

Soil bulk density (BD) serves as a fundamental indicator of soil health and quality, exerting a significant influence on critical factors such as plant growth, nutrient availability, and water retention. Due to its limited availability in soil databases, the application of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) has emerged as a potent tool for predicting BD using other easily measurable soil properties, while the impact of these PTFs' performance on soil organic carbon (SOC) stock calculation has been rarely explored. In this study, we proposed an innovative local modeling approach for predicting BD of fine earth (BDfine) across Europe using the recently released BDfine data from the LUCAS Soil (Land Use and Coverage Area Frame Survey Soil) 2018 (0–20 cm) and relevant predictors. Our approach involved a combination of neighbor sample search, forward recursive feature selection (FRFS), and random forest (RF) models (local-RFFRFS). The results showed that local-RFFRFS had a good performance in predicting BDfine (R2 of 0.58, root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.19 g cm−3, relative error (RE) of 16.27 %), surpassing the earlier-published PTFs (R2 of 0.40–0.45, RMSE of 0.22 g cm−3, RE of 19.11 %–21.18 %) and global PTFs using RF models with and without FRFS (R2 of 0.56–0.57, RMSE of 0.19 g cm−3, RE of 16.47 %–16.74 %). Interestingly, we found that the best earlier-published PTF (R2 = 0.84, RMSE = 1.39 kg m−2, RE of 17.57 %) performed close to the local-RFFRFS (R2 = 0.85, RMSE = 1.32 kg m−2, RE of 15.01 %) in SOC stock calculation using BDfine predictions. However, the local-RFFRFS still performed better (ΔR2 > 0.2) for soil samples with low SOC stocks (< 3 kg m−2). Therefore, we suggest that the local-RFFRFS is a promising method for BDfine prediction, while earlier-published PTFs would be more efficient when BDfine is subsequently utilized for calculating SOC stock. Finally, we produced two topsoil BDfine and SOC stock datasets (18 945 and 15 389 soil samples) at 0–20 cm for LUCAS Soil 2018 using the best earlier-published PTF and local-RFFRFS, respectively. This dataset is archived on the Zenodo platform at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10211884 (S. Chen et al., 2023). The outcomes of this study present a meaningful advancement in enhancing the predictive accuracy of BDfine, and the resultant BDfine and SOC stock datasets for topsoil across the Europe enable more precise soil hydrological and biological modeling.